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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


BV  125  ,E6  1884 
Elliott,  George,  1851- 
The  abiding  Sabbath 


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/- 


THE 


ABIDING  SABBATH 


AN  ARGUMENT 


PERPETUAL  DBLIGATIDI^  DF  THE  LOIRE'S  DAY, 


THE  FLETCHER  PRIZE  ESSAY  FOR  1884. 


BY  RE  I/.  GEORGE^  ELLIOTT. 


There  remaineth,  therefore,  a  Sabbath-keeping  for  the  people 
of  God."    Heb.  4:9. 


AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY, 

150  NASSAU  STREET,   NEW  YORK. 


COPYRIGHT,  1884. 
BY  AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY. 


The  Fletcher  Prize  Essay. 


The  late  Hon.  Richard  Fletcher,  of  Boston, 
Mass.,  by  his  last  will,  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Trus- 
tees of  Dartmouth  College  a  fund  from  the  income  of 
which  they  are  to  offer,  once  in  two  years,  a  prize  of 
Five  Hundred  Dollars  for  the  essay  best  adapted 
to  accomplish  the  purposes  indicated  by  the  testator  as 
follows : 

"  In  view  of  the  numerous  and  powerful  influences 
constantly  active  in  drawing  professed  Christians  into 
fatal  conformity  with  the  world,  both  in  spirit  and  prac- 
tice; in  view  also  of  the  lamentable  and  amazing  fact 
that  Christianity  exerts  so  little  practical  influence,  even 
in  countries  nominally  Christian,  it  has  seemed  to  me 
that  some  good  might  be  done  by  making  permanent 
provision  for  obtaining  and  publishing  once  in  two 
years  a  Prize  Essay,  setting  forth  truth  and  reasoning 
calculated  to  counteract  such  worldly  influences,  and 
impressing  on  the  minds  of  all  Christians  a  solemn 
sense  of  their  duty  to  exhibit  in  their  godly  lives  and 
conversation  the  beneficent  eflects  of  the  religion  they 
profess,  and  thus  increase  the  efficiency  of  Christianity 
in  Christian  countries  and  recommend  its  acceptance  to 
the  heathen  nations  of  the  world." 


The  above  prize  was  offered,  for  the  fifth  time,  in 
the  month  of  January,  1883.  And  inasmuch  as  the 
Christian  Sabbath  or  Lord's  day  is  vitally  related  to 
all  Christian  life,  the  specific  theme  designated  for  the 
Essay  was, 

Tp  PERPETUAL  DBLIGATIDF  DF  Tp  LDp'S  DAY. 

The  following  gentlemen  constituted  the  committee 
of  award:  Prof  William  Thompson,  D.  D.,  Prof  Llew- 
ellyn Pratt,  D.  D.,  and  Rev.  George  M.  Stone,  D.  D., 
all  of  Hartford,  Conn.  After  a  careful  and  thorough 
examination  the  prize  was  awarded  to  an  essay  which 
proved  to  have  been  written  by  Rev.  George  Elliott,  of 
West  Union,  Iowa,  and  which  is  contained  in  the  pres- 
ent volume. 

SAMUEL  C.  BARTLETT, 

PRESIDENT  OF  DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE. 

Dartmouth  College,  Sept.,  1884. 


PREFACE 


This  book  has  been  written  in  the  full  conviction 
that  fresh  discussion  of  this  great  question  is  a  want  of 
to-day.  While  litde  that  is  new  may  be  stated,  yet  it 
is  hoped  that  the  old  facts  and  arguments  have  been 
freshly  put  and  so  arranged  as  to  lead  to  the  one  defi- 
nite conviction  of  the  perpetual  obligation  of  the  Chris- 
tian Sabbath  or  Lord's  Day. 

Many  works  of  much  value  have  been  written  on 
the  Sabbath;  but  most  of  them  have  been  marred 
either  by  an  under-estimate  of  the  obligation  of  the 
day,  or  by  a  reckless  over-statement  of  facts  in  its  de- 
fence. It  is  hoped  that  these  defects  have  been  in  some 
measure  avoided  in  these  pages.  No  fact  has  been 
introduced  which  has  not  been  traced  to  its  final  au- 
thority. In  Scripture  interpretation  it  has  been  sought 
to  present  only  the  results  of  candid  exegesis,  and  no 
argument  has  been  adduced  simply  for  the  purpose  of 
making  a  point,  but  only  in  the  full  belief  of  its  valid- 
ity. Statements  of  possible  value ;  facts  not  fully  estab- 
lished, but  having  some  probability ;  and  arguments  of 
only  partial  validity,  when  introduced  at  all,  are,  it  is 
hoped,  so  fully  guarded  by  cautious  statement  as  to 
mislead  no  one. 


6  PRKFACE. 

The  writer  acknowledges  his  special  indebtedness 
to  Hessey's  Bampton  Lectures  on  "  Sunday  "  for  direc- 
tion to  those  sources  of  information,  historical,  patristic, 
and  scientific,  which  must  settle  the  question  in  the  last 
resort. 

May  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  rest 
on  this  and  every  honest  effort  to  commend  his  day  to 
the  reason  and  conscience  of  mankind ! 
._    West  Union,  Iowa.  G.  E. 


^--5 


IfNifiEfii 


Introduction 7 

PART  I.     SABBATH  OF  NATURE. 
CHAPTER  I.    t 

^  Ordinance  of  Creation ,  ,       ,       .       .13 

CHAPTER  n. 

Reason  of  the  Sabbath 29 

CHAPTER  III.  ^. 

The  Sabbath  and  the  Individual  .        .        .        .        .        .        .35 

CHAPTER  IV.   y^ 

The  Sabbath  and  Society 57 

CHAPTER  V.  ' 

The  Sabbath  and  Religion 77 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Primitive  Sabbath 95 

• 

PART  11.     SABBATH  OF  THE  I^AW.     i 
CHAPTER  I. 

Its  Institution 109 

CHAPTER  II. 
The  Fourth  Commandment 114 

CHAPTER  III. 

Transient  and  Permanent  Elements  in  the  Sabbath  of  Israel     130 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Some  Scripture  Testimonies  to  the  Value  of  the  Sabbath         .  136 

CHAPTER  V. 

History  of  the  Sabbath  in  Israel 140 

♦ 

PART  III.  SABBATH  OF  REDEMPTION. 
CHAPTER  I. 

Testimony  of  Jesus  Christ 157 

CHAPTER  II. 

Apostolic  Testimony I73 

CHAPTER  HI. 

Origin  of  the  Lord's  Day 187 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Change  of  Day 201 

CHAPTER  V. 

History  of  the  Lord's  Day  in  the  Ante-Nicene  Period      .        .  213 

CHAPTER  VI. 

History  of  the  Lord's  Day  in  the  Fourth  and  Fifth  Centuries    236 

CHAPTER  VII. 

History  of  the  Lord's   Day  from  the  Fifth  Century  to  the 

Present 249 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Sabbath  of  To-day 261 

CHAPTER  IX. 
Sabbath  of  Eternity 270 

Appendix '^'Jl 


INTRODUCTION 


The  political,  commercial,  and  social  life  of  Chris- 
tendom is  cast  in  a  seven-fold  rhythm.  Upon  the  rest- 
lessness of  the  work-day  world  and  upon  its  clamoring 
voices  fall  the  stillness  and  repose  of  the  seventh  day. 
From  office,  shop,  and  field  the  busy  tide  of  life  with- 
draws to  worship  at  the  altars  of  Christ,  or  at  least  by 
some  form  of  recreation  to  relieve  the  tension  of  the 
week. 

Widely  varied,  indeed,  is  the  observance  of  its  hours, 
from  the  solemn  stillness  of  a  Scotch  town  to  that  holi- 
day gayety  of  a  German  city  so  vividly  pictured  by 
Goethe  in  his  "  Faust."  But  in  the  particular  of  cessa- 
tion in  some  degree  from  the  common  business  of  life, 
the  custom  is  the  same  throughout  Christian  lands. 
There  is  perhaps  no  religious  institution  which  is  so 
patent  to  all  observation  as  this. 

How  shall  we  account  for  this  institution  which  has 
set  its  mark  so  deeply  in  the  life  of  the  conquering  na- 
tions of  the  world  ?  It  comes  to  us  an  inheritance  from 
the  past ;  the  hoar-frost  of  the  centuries  is  upon  it,  but 
it  still  bears  the  fresh  and  vigorous  life  of  youth.  Sac- 
rificial fires  have  faded  into  lifeless  ashes;  altars  have 
crumbled  and  temples  have  decayed ;  old  customs,  insti- 


lO  INTRODUCTION. 

tutions,  and  manners  the  world  has  cast  off  as  worn-out 
garments ;  but  this  abides,  surviving  the  fateful  fortunes 
of  sixty  centuries,  unharmed  by  the  touch  of  time.  And 
as  we  regard  it  more  closely,  more  serious  questions 
come  to  light.  Is  the  Sabbath  but  a  well-meant  and 
valued  form  for  the  shaping  and  discipHne  of  our  hfe  ?  or 
is  there  within  it  a  spiritual  meaning,  a  moral  reason  by 
which  it  may  give  the  law  to  the  conscience  of  man  and 
demand  obedience  by  the  highest  sanctions  of  duty? 
Is  it  only  a  custom  received  with  our  religion  from  an 
Asian  people  ?  or  has  it  those  marks  of  universality  and 
moral  necessity  which  make  it  permanently  obligatory 
upon  every  age  of  history  and  every  race  of  mankind  ? 
And  can  we  take  a  still  higher  ground,  and  assert  that 
for  this  institution  we  have  the  continued  authority  of 
the  divine  will  and  Word  ? 

These  questions  are  vital  to  the  very  existence  of 
the  Sabbath.  Such  is  the  constitution  of  human  nature 
that  no  rule  of  conduct  is  able  to  impose  itself  upon 
mankind.  No  conviction  of  its  benefits,  and  no  senti- 
ment, even  of  duty,  in  the  matter  can  have  any  power 
permanently  to  enforce  any  course  of  human  conduct 
without  the  higher  sanctions  of  religion.  The  Sabbath 
must  stand  or  fall  as  men  regard  it  or  not  as  of  divine 
legislation  and  authority. 

The  special  difficulty  of  the  subject  lies  in  the  exter- 
nal character  of  the  Sabbath  itself;  that  is,  in  the  very 
fact  that  it  is  an  institution.  To  our  common  thought 
the  moral  law  is  something  inward  and  spiritual,  and 
not  outward  and  material ;  it  must  speak  to  us  from  a 


INTRODUCTION.  II 

realm  transcending  time  and  space,  and  is  ever  con- 
ceived as  something  disenthralled  of  the  world  of  sense. 
The  Sabbath,  on  the  other  hand,  has  its  very  being  in 
time ;  time  is  the  material  of  its  existence ;  it  is  set  in 
the  world  of  appearance  and  sense.  This  it  is  which 
most  largely  makes  it  difficult  to  feel  the  absolute  obli- 
gation of  its  observance.  The  shadow  of  ceremonialism 
which  rests  over  the  Lord's  day  has  too  often  hidden, 
even  from  clearest  spiritual  vision,  the  profound  ethical 
foundations  on  which  it  stands.  It  becomes  confounded 
with  those  "  times  and  seasons  "  and  external  rites  which 
are  acknowledged  to  be  the  formal  element  in  all  reli- 
gion. It  is  the  purpose  of  the  following  pages  to  dis- 
engage the  Sabbath  from  the  network  of  outward  cere- 
mony in  which  in  thought  it  has  been  too  closely  en- 
twined, and  to  show  that  it  contains  permanent  elements 
of  character,  an  inward  significance  and  a  moral  neces- 
sity which  give  to  it  an  abiding  force  and  authority 
above  that  which  belongs  to  the  passing  economy  of 
even  the  most  instructive  ceremonial  system.  It  will  be 
shown  that  some  such  contact  between  the  worlds  of 
spirit  and  sense  as  the  Sabbath  affords  is  necessary; 
that  only  through  such  an  institution  can  the  moral 
realm  fully  and  closely  touch  and  influence  the  ouUvard 
life  of  humanity ;  and  that  this  form  is  such  as  not  to 
obstruct  the  life  of  the  spirit,  but  to  give  it  a  larger  free- 
dom. Above  all,  it  will  be  shown  that  the  Sabbath  is  ^ 
marked  with  the  divine  signature,  and  has  upon  it  a  / 
seal  of  authority  given  by  God  himself;  that  he  has  re- 
peatedly enacted  it  for  man's  good  and  his  own  glory. 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

The  following  proposition  will  be  maintained : 
The  Lord's  day,  or  Christian  Sabbath^  being  an  in- 
stitution founded  in  the  moral  order  of  the  world,  being 
necessary  to  the  highest  well-being  of  man,  and  being 
enforced  by  the  positive  precepts  of  divine  revelatioti^  is 
therefore  of  universal  and  perpetual  obligation. 
In  support  of  this  proposition  it  will  be  shown, 

1.  That  history,  observation,  and  experience  unite 
in  affirming  the  necessity  of  the  Sabbath.  There  is  a 
Sabbath  of  nature,  instituted  at  the  Creation  by  God 
the  Creator. 

2.  That  the  Sabbath  has  received  the  high  sanction 
of  divine  revelation  in  the  Sabbath  of  the  Law,  ordained 
by  the  God  of  providence  for  his  people. 

3.  That  the  observance  of  the  Christian  Lord's  day 
in  the  most  perfect  manner  satisfies  the  obligation  thus 
proven.  This  is  the  Sabbath  of  redemption,  given  by 
God  the  Redeemer  in  his  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

4.  The  Sabbaths  of  creation,  providence,  and  grace 
are  manifestations  of  one  abiding  Sabbath,  the  earthly 
type  of  the  Sabbath  of  eternity. 


PART    I. 

lABBATH   0F  RATURE. 


Sabbath  of  Nature. 


CHAPTER   I. 

ORDINANCE  OF  CREATION. 

"  And  He,  with  gracious  smile,  received  our  praise, 
Lingering  enamored  o'er  his  new-made  world, 
The  latest  counsel  of  his  love,  the  while 
The  earth  her  earliest,  holiest  Sabbath  kept, 
Gladdened  with  new  seraphic  symphonies 
And  the  first  echo  of  the  human  voice." 

BICKERSTETH. 

"  The  first  creation  of  God  in  the  works  of  the  days  was 
the  light  of  the  sense ;  the  last  was  the  light  of  reason ;  and 
his  Sabbath  work  ever  since  is  the  illumination  of  his  Spirit." 

BACON. 

The  Sabbath  is  an  institution  as  old  as  the 
completion  of  the  world.  It  marked  the  end  of 
the  Creator's  work  and  the  beginning  of  man's 
existence.  It  shares  with  marriage  the  glory  of 
being  the  sole  relics  saved  to  the  fallen  race  from 
their  lost  paradise.  One  is  the  foundation  of  the 
family,  and  consequently  of  the  state;  the  other 
is  equally  necessary  to  worship  and  the  church. 


14  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

These  two  fair  and  fragrant  roses  man  bore  with 
him  from  the  blighted  bliss  of  Bden. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  mere  fact  of  age  that 
lends  sacredness  to  these  institutions,  for  years 
alone  cannot  give  consecration  or  compel  regard 
to  anything  which  does  not  possess  in  itself  some 
inherent  sanctity  and  dignity.  It  is  in  the  cir- 
cumstances of  its  first  institution  and  in  its  essen- 
tial character  that  we  must  hope  to  discover  the 
*  necessity  and  holiness  of  the  Sabbath  day. 

"God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  sanctified 
it,  because  that  in  it  he  had  rested  from  all  his 
w^ork  which  God  created  and  made. ' '  Gen.  2 : 3. 
Such  is  the  sublimely  simple  statement  which 
forms  the  last  strain  of  that  magnificent  hymn  of 
creation  which  is  our  only  glimpse  into  the  be- 
ginning of  things.  It  is  surely  consistent  with 
sound  common  sense  and  sound  interpretation  to 
see  in  these  words  much  more  than  a  mere  an- 
ticipation of  the  theocratic  Sabbath  of  Israel.  It 
seems  absurd  to  express  in  words  what  some  have 
implied  in  their  reasonings  on  this  passage: 
"God  rested  on  the  seventh  day;  therefore  2,500 
years  afterwards  he  blessed  and  sanctified  it." 
The  same  form  of  language  is  used  to  describe 
what  took  place  on  the  seventh  day  as  in  relating 
what  took  place  in  the  six  preceding  days. 

It  is  certain  that  a  first  reading  of  this  passage 


ORDINANCE   OF   CREATION.  15 

conveys  to  the  mind  the  idea  that  the  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  Sabbath  as  a  day  of  rest  took  place  at 
the  very  close  of  the  creative  week.  That  such 
was  the  case  would,  probably,  never  have  been 
denied  if  the  denial  had  not  been  necessary  to 
support  a  peculiar  view.  Doubt  in  regard  to  this 
proleptic  interpretation  is  sustained  by  the  recent 
discovery  of  mention  of  a  day  of  rest  in  the  As- 
syrian account  of  creation,  which  is  believed  to 
antedate  Moses  by  nearly  six  hundred  years,  and 
the  further  discovery  of  the  actual  observance  of 
a  Sabbath  in  Babylonia  long  before  the  time  of 
the  Mosaic  institution.*  Is  not  God  saving  his 
facts  in  Egyptian  tombs,  on  Assyrian  bricks,  and 
in  all  historic  remains  everywhere,  that,  at  every 
crisis  of  his  truth,  when  even  the  mouths  of  be- 
lievers are  silenced  by  the  tumult  of  doubt,  the 
very  "stones"  may  "cry  out"? 

Our  view  of  this  passage  is  further  confirmed 
by  the  word  "remember"  in  the  Fourth  Com- 
mandment as  coupled  with  the  reason  at  the  end 
of  that  commandment.  So  far  as  Scripture  tes- 
timony can  go,  as  enforced  by  archaeological  evi- 
dence—and no  other  proofs  are  available— the 
Sabbath  is  an  ordinance  of  creation.  When  we 
further  see  how  necessary  it  is  to  the  whole  na- 
ture of  man,  how  indispensable  to  his  highest 
*  See  Chapter  6  on  "  The  Primitive  Sabbath." 

AbiiliDS  Sal)I)ath.  2 


v--^" 


l6  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

well-being,  we  are  compelled  to  believe  that  it 
must  have  been  given  to  man  at  the  beginning  if 
he  were  to  be  fully  equipped  for  his  mission  in 
the  world. 

A  special  authority  attaches  itself  to  the  prim- 


itive revelation.  Whatever  critical  opinions  may 
assert  concerning  the  early  history  of  the  world, 
to  the  Christian  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ 
remains  in  force  to  the  high  obligation  of  the 
Bdenic  law.  In  reproving  the  corruptions  of  the 
marriao:e  relation  which  had  arisen  under  the 
Mosaic  code,  he  reverts  to  the  primitive  law; 
*'From  the  beginning  it  was  not  so."  That  is 
to  say,  the  law  of  the  beginning  is  supreme. 
Whatever  institutions  were  given  to  man  then 
were  given  for  all  time.  There  is  given  thus  to 
marriage,  and  to  its  related  institution,  the  Sab- 
bath, a  permanent  character  and  authority  which 
transcend  the  Hebrew  legislation  in  their  uni- 
versal and  abiding  force.  Those  elements  of 
truth  which  were  given  to  the  infant  race  are  the 
possession  of  humanity,  and  not  of  the  Jew  alone: 
they  are  the  alphabet  of  all  the  growing  knowledge  *. 
of  man,  not  to  be  forgotten  as  the  world  grows 
old,  but  to  be  borne  with  him  in  all  his  wander- 
ings, to  last  through  all  changes,  and  be  his  guide 
up  those  rugged  steeps  by  which  he  must  climb  to 
the  lofty  summits  of  his  nobler  destiny. 


ORDIXxYXCE   OF   CREATION.  1 7 

1.  TJie  Sabbath^  being  mi  ordinance  of  creation^ 
is  a  tmiversal  and  permanent  institution. 

Not  to  a  single  race,  but  to  man;  not  to  man 
alone,  but  to  the  whole  creation ;  not  to  the  crea- 
ted things  alone,  but  to  the  Creator  himself,  came 
the  benediction  of  the  first  Sabbath.  Its  signifi- 
cance extends  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  Juda- 
ism to  all  races,  and  perhaps  to  all  worlds.  It  is 
a  law  spoken  not  simply  through  the  lawgiver 
of  a  chosen  people,  but  declared  in  the  presence 
of  a  finished  heaven  and  earth.  The  declaration  * 
in  Genesis  furnishes  the  best  commentary  on  the 
saying  of  Jesus:  "The  Sabbath  was  made  for 
man."  For  man,  universal  humanity,  it  was 
given  with  its  benediction. 

2.  The  Sabbath  is  a  momiment  of  creatiojt^  and 
therefore  of  ttniversal  and perma^tent  obligatioji. 

The  reason  of  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath 
is  one  which  possesses  an  unchanging  interest  and 
importance  to  all  mankind.  The  theme  of  the 
Creation  is  not  peculiar  to  Israel,  nor  is  worship  . 
of  the  Creator  confined  to  the  children  of  Abra-  » 
ham.  The  primary  article  of  every  religious 
creed,  and  the  foundation  of  all  true  religion,  is 
faith  in  one  God  as  the  Maker  of  all  things. 
Against  atheism,  which  denies  the  existence  of  a 
personal  God;  against  materialism,  which  denies 
that  this  visible  universe  has  its  roots  in  the  un- 


l8  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

seen ;  and  against  secularism,  which  denies  the 
need  of  worship,  the  Sabbath  is  therefore  an  eter- 
nal witness.  It  symbolically  commemorates  that 
^.creative  power  which  spoke  all  things  into  being, 
the  wisdom  which  ordered  their  adaptations  and 
harmony,  and  the  love  which  made,  as  well  as 
pronounced,  all  "very  good."  It  is  set  as  the 
perpetual  guardian  of  man  against  that  spiritual 
infirmity  which  has  everywhere  led  him  to  a  de- 
nial of  the  God  who  made  him,  or  to  the  degra- 
dation of  that  God  into  a  creature  made  with  his 
own  hands. 

There  may  have  been  ages  in  the  history  of 
the  Christian  church  when  this  fundamental  doc- 
trine of  creation  has  seemed  of  little  consequence, 
when  the  belief  in  a  personal  Author  of  the  world 
has  been  looked  upon  as  a  barren  truism  too  ab- 
solutely certain  to  be  w^orth  discussion  or  proof. 
But  those  days  are  past.  •  The  wonderful  progress 
of  physical  science  in  the  last  century  has  led  the 
thoughts  of  men  anew  to  those  old  problems  of 
the  beginnings  of  things.  And  too  often  has 
close  absorption  in  "the  things  that  are  seen" 
blinded  the  eyes  of  even  honest  students  to  the 
"  things  that  are  not  seen,"  and  star-eyed  science 
has  become  mole-eyed  by  too  long  working  under- 
ground. Life  is  not  revealed  to  the  straining 
eyes  that  peer  into  the  microscope;  spirit  escapes 


ORDINANCE   OF   CREATION.  19 

the  sharp  point  of  the  scalpel ;  and  God  cannot  be 
found  in  the  bottom  of  a  crucible.  Against  this 
tendency  to  doubt  the  spiritual  and  supernatu- 
ral, against  this  infidelity  to  the  doctrine  of  cre- 
ation and  a  personal  Creator,  the  Sabbath  is  a 
perpetual  protest.  We  can  hardly  doubt  that 
were  its  observance  more  regarded,  and  its  spirit- 
ual meaning  more  largely  dwelt  upon,  no  fool 
would  be  found  saying  either  in  his  heart  or  on 
his  lips,  "There  is  no  God." 

It  is  very  evident  that  this  doctrinejof  crea- 
tion pertains  to  all  time  as  well  as  to  all  men.  * 
Never  can  scientific  thought  be  indifferent  to  the 
origin  of  things,  and  never  can  religion  fail  to 
remember  that  every  doctrine  is  meaningless 
which  does  not  have  as  its  presupposition  a  per- 
sonal Author  of  all  things,  infinite  in  power,  in- 
telligence, and  beneficence.  As  fair  as  to  the 
gaze  of  the  first  man  the  face  of  nature  shines. 

"  The  world's  unwithered  countenance 
Is  bright  as  on  creation's  day." 

To  the  widening  thought  of  man,  to  his  en- 
larged knowledge  of  the  wonders  of  the  world 
about  him,  and  to  his  large  grasp  of  the  laws  and 
forces  that  rule  it,  the  -marvel  of  its  existence  is 
not  less,  but  more;  and  whether  with  curiosity  or 
reverence  he  tread  the  paths  of  his  search,  they 
ever  lead  into  a  fathomless  mystery,  a  mystery 


20  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

which  only  the  high  miracle  of  creation  can 
solve.  While  the  reason  remains,  the  law  re- 
mains. The  reason  of  the  Sabbath  is  to  be  found 
in  the  fact  of  creation;  it  is  God's  one  monument 
set  in  human  history  to  that  great  event;  and  so 
long  as  the  truth  of  creation  and  the  knowledge 
of  a  Creator  have  any  value  to  human  thought, 
any  authority  over  the  human  conscience,  or 
make  any  appeal  to  human  affections,  so  long 
the  law  and  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath  will 
abide  with  lasting  instruction  and  undiminished 
obligation. 

3.  The  example  of  the  Creator  establishes  the 
moral  character  of  this  obligation, 

God  ' '  rested  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work 
which  he  had  made."  Such  is  the  record,  de- 
clared in  the  beginning,  embodied  in  the  Deca- 
logue, and  confirmed  by  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews. It  is  a  statement  not  to  be  easily  under- 
stood at  the  first  glance.  ^'Hast  thou  not  known? 
hast  thou  not  heard,  that  the  everlasting  God,  the 
Lord,  the  Creator  of  the  ends  of  the  earth,  fainteth 
not,  neither  is  weary?"  Isaiah  40  :  28.  If  he  is 
never  weary,  how  can  we  say  of  him  that  he  rests? 
Besides,  Jesus  has  said,  and  with  reference  to  the 
Sabbath,  "My  Father  worketh  hitherto."  John 
5:17.  We  see  no  cessation  of  activity  in  the 
works  of  God.     Night  and  day  the  ever-moving 


ORDINANCE   OF   CREATION.  21 

wheels  of  nature  revolve,  knowing  no  weariness 
and  finding  no  rest.  With  unflagging  pace  the 
journeying  worlds  keep  up  their  eternal  march 
through  space.  The  radiant  light  speeds  onward, 
marking  its  footsteps  with  beauty;  the  subtile  elec- 
tric fire  flashes  along  its  secret  ways  to  do  its  won- 
drous work;  and  life  throbs  on  its  deeper  diapason 
of  meaning  beneath  these  upper  notes  of  nature ; 
but  all  these  faint  not  on  their  unceasing:  round 
of  work,  and  never  suspend  their  unwearied  ac- 
tivity of  untiring,  unresting  motion.  How,  then, 
can  God,  who  thus  upholds  his  creation  with  an 
energy  that  never  is  remitted,  be  said  to  rest  ? 

God  is  a  Spirit,  and  the  only  rest  which  he  can 
know  is  that  supreme  repose  which  only  the  Spirit 
can  know — in  the  fulfilment  of  his  purpose  and  the 
completeness  as  well  as  completion  of  his  work. 
Just  as,  in  the  solemn  pauses  between  the  creative 
days,  he  pronounced  his  creatures  *^  very  good,'* 
so  did  he  rejoice  over  the  finishing  of  his  work, 
resting  in  the  perfect  satisfaction  of  an  accom- 
plished plan;  not  to  restore  his  wasted  energy,  as 
man  rests,  but  to  signify  that  in  the  coming  of  man 
the  creative  idea  has  found  its  consummation  and 
crown.  Such  is  the  rest  possible  to  a  purely  spir- 
itual nature — the  rest  of  a  completed  work. 

While,  therefore,  it  may  be  admitted  that  the 
world  endures  only  by  the  continuous  exercise  of 


22  THE    ABIDING   SABBATH. 

the  energy  by  wliicli  it  was  first  formed,  still  the 
appearance  of  man  marked  the  summit  of  the 
ascending  thought  of  creation,  considered  either 
as  a  material  or  a  mental  product.  All  that  came 
before  him  had  reference  to  him,  and  all  prophe- 
sied his  coming.  When  he  came  he  was  the  an- 
swer to  all  the  voices  of  all  the  geologic  ages  before 
him.  The  universe  was  made  with  reference  to 
man,  because  man  was  made  with  reference  to 
the  law  of  righteousness.  In  him  God  produced 
the  full  finite  expression  of  himself;  man  was 
made  ^'in  the  image  of  God."  In  man  culmi- 
nated the  eternal  counsel  of  creation,  and  there- 
fore did  the  Creator  cease  from  his  work,  and  spir- 
itually rest  in  complacent  contemplation  of  a  fin- 
ished world.  His  is  not  the  unconscious  repose 
of  Hindoo  mythology,  which  says,  "Brahma 
sleeps,"  but  the  Maker's  joy  in  the  perfectness  of 
his  work,  shared  by  the  morning  stars  in  their 
songs  of  gladness,  and  echoed  in  the  joyful  shout- 
ing of  the  sons  of  God. 

In  the  idea  of  the  Sabbath  there  is,  therefore, 
contained  both  a  monument  to  the  physical  fact 
of  creation  and  a  testimony  to  its  spiritual  mean- 

{  ing  achieved  in  man.     In  keeping  the  Sabbath, 
man  asserts  his  own  spirituality  and  the  spiritual- 

^  ity  of  God;  asserts  that  he  is  not  related  so  closely 
to  restless  nature  as  to  God,  who,  being  a  Spirit, 


ORDINANCE   OF  CREATION.  23 

can  rest  in  his  work  as  well  as  from  his  work,  Man 
can  cease  to  observe  the  Sabbath  only  when  he  has 
ceased  to  respect  the  divinity  of  his  own  nature 
and  has  thoroughly  identified  himself  with  the 
brutish  mechanism  of  nature,  which  never  knows 
or  needs  repose.  The  obligation  of  the  Sabbath 
has  for  its  measure  the  dignity  of  the  nature  of 
man;  its  law  rests  upon  him  as  son  of  God  and  kin 
of  angels;  and  its  duration  is  consequently  as  last- 
ing as  the  life  of  spirit,  as  immortal  as  himself 

There  is  a  still  deeper  sense  in  which  the  ex- 
ample of  Deity  reveals  this  obligation.  Suppose 
the  question  to  be  asked.  How  can  we  know  that 
any  precept  is  moral  in  its  meaning  and  author- 
ity, and  not  simply  a  positive  and  arbitrary  com- 
mand? What  better  answer  could  be  given  to 
this  inquiry  than  to  say  that  a  moral  precept  must 
have  the  ground  of  its  existence  in  the  nature  of 
God  ?  Our  highest  conception  of  the  moral  law 
is  to  regard  it  as  the  transcript  of  his  nature. 
This  will  be  true  whatever  position  we  take  in 
regard  to  the  vexed  questions  of  the  foundation 
and  character  of  moral  obligation.  Whatever 
side  we  take  in  these  disputes,  all  must  agree  that 
no  more  perfect  vindication  of  the  moral  charac- 
ter of  a  law  can  be  given  than  to  show  that  it  is 
a  rule  of  the  divine  conduct;  that  it  has  been  im- 
posed upon  his  own  activity  by  that  infinite  Will 


24  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

which  is  the  supreme  authority  both  iti  the  phys- 
ical and  moral  government  of  the  universe.  That 
law  to  which  the  Creator  submits  his  own  being 
must  be  of  absolute  binding  force  upon  every 
creature  made  in  his  image.  Such  is  the  law  of 
the  Sabbath.  *'God  rested  the  seventh  day,'^ 
and  by  so  doing  has  given  to  the  law  of  the  Sab- 
bath the  highest  and  strongest  sanction  possible 
even  to  Deity.  In  no  conceivable  way  could  the 
Almighty  so  perfectly  and  with  such  unchallenge- 
able authority  declare  not  simply  his  will  in  a 
positive  institution,  but  the  essentially  moral 
character  of  the  precept,  as  by.revealing  his  own 
self-subjection  to  the  rule  which  he  imposes  on 
his  creatures.  This  argument  is  not  weakened 
but  strengthened  by  the  admission  already  made 
that  God's  keeping  of  a  Sabbath  is  not  in  every 
respect  like  that  of  man  ;  that  he  cannot  be  said 
to  rest  in  every  sense  in  which  man  rests.  There 
is  thus  disclosed  the  fact  that  the  Sabbath  has  a 
spiritual  essence,  an  inward  meaning  deeper  than 
the  outward  fact  of  physical  rest,  and  that  beneath 
'the  material  element  of  its  being  it  has  a  moral 
foundation  and  life.  Its  obligation  is  addressed 
not  to  man's  physical  nature  alone,  but  to  man  as 
a  spiritual  being  made  in  the  image  of  God;  it  is 
laid  not  only  on  his  bodily  powers  and  natural 
understanding,  but  upon  his  moral  reason  as  right, 


ORDINANCE    OF   CREATION.  25 

and  upon  his  conscience  as  duty.  It  is  therefore 
bounded  by  no  limits  of  time,  place,  or  circum- 
stance, but  is  of  universal  and  perpetual  au- 
tnority. 

4.  There  is  a  divine  Sabbath^  which  is  the  abi- 
ding gi'ound  of  tJie  human  institution  of  tJie  Sabbath, 

The  thought  has  doubtless  already  arisen  in 
the  mind  of  the  reader  that  these  days  of  creation 
are  not  to  be  taken  as  literal  days  of  twenty-four 
hours  each,  and  that  by  consequence  the  seventh 
day  of  the  divine  rest  is  not  a  natural  day  marked 
by  the  revolution  of  the  earth,  and  therefore  the 
duty  of  observing  sacredly  one  day  in  a  week  as  a 
Sabbath  cannot  be  based  on  the  ordinance  of  cre- 
ation. What  if  we  should  find  in  that  very  fact 
a  new  confirmation  of  the  abiding  character  of 
the  Sabbatic  law? 

Indeed,  our  very  conception  of  God  forbids  us 
to  bring  him  under  the  dominion  of  a  temporal 
institute.  His  Sabbath,  as  an  infinite  Being, 
must  be  one  of  those  "ineffable  days"  of  which 
St.  Augustine  speaks.  God  has  done  more  than 
give  an  example  to  man  in  entering  upon  his 
Sabbath  rest.  He  has  placed  after  the  ages  of 
his  physical  activity  of  world-making  an  age  of 
spiritual  manifestation ;  in  the  midst  of  the  king- 
dom of  nature  he  places  a  holy  and  happy  king- 
dom of  souls.     This  Sabbath  of  God  covers  the 


26  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

life  of  man  on  the  earth  and  extends  into  the 
eternity  of  his  existence  with  God  hereafter.  In 
Eden  man  enjoyed  with  his  Maker  a  perpetual 
Sabbath.  L^abor  had  not  yet  become  a  curse; 
the  antagonism  between  spirit  and  nature  caused 
by  sin  had  not  yet  manifested  itself.  If  the  week- 
ly Sabbath  was  kept,  it  was  to  commemorate  the 
work  which  had  ended  in  this  blessed  harmony 
of  man  with  God.  In  the  fall  man  lost  the  divine 
Sabbath  in  its  fulness;  but  to  him,  thus  under 
the  sentence  of  labor  and  death,  the  weekly  Sab- 
^  bath  remained,  the  constant  memorial  of  the  for- 
\imer,  and  the  perpetual  prophet  of  its  restoration 
through  a  Redeemer.  It  remains  as  the  shadow, 
gaining  with  the  advancing  years  more  and  more 
of  the  substance  of  true  rest,  and  shall  remain 
until  man  enters  again  into  the  heavenly  rest  of  a 
regained  paradise  in  the  restitution  of  all  things. 
The  Sabbath  is  not  a  legal  but  an  evangelical  in- 
stitution, the  central  and  only  abiding  outward 
sign  of  all  religious  belief.  It  is  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  whole  history  of  redemption. 
Our  human  Sabbaths  are  points  at  which  we 
touch  our  diviner  life,  points  where  still  we  rec- 
ognize that  eternity  of  bliss  which  hovers  for  ever 
over  our  years  of  sorrow. 

Our  weekly  Sabbath  is  therefore  the  manifes- 
tation in  time  of  something  which  is  eternal. 


ORDINANCE   OF   CREATION.  27 

Why  this  eternal  fact  should  have  as  its  temporal 
embodiment  just  one  day  in  seven  is  something 
which  we  are  no  more  able  to  explain  than  why 
the  immortal  spirit  of  man  should  have  such  and  ' 
such  a  body.    It  is  the  form  which  God  has  given 
it,  for  he  has  revealed  not  indistinctly  that  the 
number  seven  is  the  signature  of  creation.     As  it 
is  everywhere  in  Scripture  the  number  of  perfec- 
tion and  completeness,  it  is  the  fit  sign  of  God's    ' 
finished  work  and  of  that  perfect  condition  in 
which  alone  the  meanings  of  his  creation  shall  be 
consummated.     The  institution  of  the  week  is  in- 
telligible only  as  a  monument  to  the  creative  his- 
tory in  its  successive  moments;  it  is  the  everlast- 
ing symbol  set  in  time  of  the  whole  process  of 
eternity.     The  weekly  Sabbath,  in  the  only  way   X 
possible  to  man  in  his  present  state,  carries  out  • 
the  divine  idea  embodied  in  that  rest. 

5.  The  language  used  indicates  a  divine  and  a 
hnman  element  in  the  Sabbath. 

' '  God  blessed  the  seventh  day,  and  sanctified 
it."  God  can  bless  the  seventh  day  only  by  ma- 
king it  a  blessing  to  man.  Insensate  time  cannot 
feel  the  benedictions  of  Deity.  Man's  blessing  is 
a  prayer,  but  God's  blessing  is  an  act.  He  alone 
can  give  the  blessing  he  pronounces.  The  Sab- 
bath serves  man's  whole  nature,  and  thus  is  it  to 
him  a  blessing.      This  side  of  the  institution  is 


28  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

wholly  directed  towards  man.  It  exists  for  liis 
sake,  for  the  good  of  his  body,  mind,  and  heart. 
It  is  a  human  institution. 

But  the  statement  that  God  sanctified  it  also 
implies  that  the  institution  has  a  divine  side  as 
well.  A  day  cannot  be  sanctified  or  made  holy 
in  itself.  Time  has  no  moral  character.  It  must 
be  made  holy  by  its  uses.  Its  hours  are,  there- 
fore, to  be  consecrated  to  the  highest  service,  de- 
voted to  the  worship  of  God.  In  no  other  way 
can  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  be  marked.  Its 
blessing  points  therefore  to  man,  and  its  sanctifi- 
cation  to  God.  The  Sabbath  is  a  divine-human 
institution,  and  this  fact  confirms  the  interpreta- 
tions already  given  of  this  ordinance  of  creation. 

The  Sabbath  is  therefore  shown  to  be  given 
in  the  beginning  to  all  men  ;  to  have  the  lofty 
sanction  of  the  example  of  God;  to  be  rooted  in 
the  eternal  world;  to  be  the  witness  of  the  most 
important  truths  possible  for  man  to  know;  to  be 
a  blessing  to  man's  nature;  to  inclose  a  duty  of 
worship  to  God.  By  all  these  revealings  which 
are  given  by  the  institution  at  its  first  ordainment 
we  are  justified  in  believing  that  it  has  a  moral 
meaning  within  it,  and  imposes  upon  all  races 
and  generations  of  men  an  unchanging  and  unre- 
laxed  obligation  of  dutiful  observance. 


REASON   OF  THE  SABBATH.  29 


CHAPTER  II. 

REASON   OF  THE   SABBATH. 

"  There  is  nothing  arbitrary  in  the  law  of  God,  although 
still  the  whole,  and  every  part  thereof,  is  totally  dependent  on 
his  will:  so  that  'Thy  will  be  done  '  is  the  supreme  universal 
law  in  earth  and  heaven."  john  wesley. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  a  dis- 
tinction much  used  in  argument  on  the  Sabbath 
question  between  moral  and  positive  precepts.  It 
is  not  unfrequently  urged  that  the  Sabbath  is  only 
a  positive  institution ;  that,  consequently,  the  ob- 
ligation of  its  observance  is  not  necessarily  per- 
petual; and  that  its  law  may  be  annulled  and 
abrogated.  As  this  is  the  very  citadel  of  all  anti- 
Sabbatarian  reasoning,  it  deserves  special  atten- 
tion. 

' '  Moral  precepts  are  precepts  the  reasons  of 
which  w^e  can  see.  Positive  precepts  are  precepts 
the  reasons  of  which  we  do  not  see.  Moral  duties 
arise  out  of  the  nature  of  the  case  itself,  prior  to 
external  command.  Positive  duties  do  not  arise 
out  of  the  nature  of  the  case,  but  from  external 
command."*  These  definitions  of  the  greatest  of 
English  apologists  have  in  them  much  that  is 
*  Bishop  Butler,  "  Analogy  of  Religion." 


30  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

valuable ;  but  a  very  little  attention  will  show 
them  to  be  quite  unsatisfactory.  The  distinction 
between  a  positive  and  a  moral  precept  is  by  no 
means  so  easy  and  simple  as  the  above  words 
would  indicate.  In  the  eighteenth  century,  when 
these  words  were  wTitten,  men  talked  freely  of 
the  light  of  nature  and  of  reason.  The  present 
age  is  beginning  to  find  out  the  difficulty  of  es- 
tablishing any  moral  law  on  a  rational  basis 
alone.  A  moral  precept  must  indeed  have  rea- 
sons, but  it  is  neither  necessary  nor  possible  for 
those  reasons  to  be  always  seen.  Self-evidence 
can  hardly  be  attributed  to  any  single  item  in  the 
moral  law.  Take,  for  example,  the  case  of  mar- 
riage, with  which  we  have  seen  the  Sabbath  to 
be  so  closely  united.  This  is  connected  with  and 
rests  upon  the  moral  duty  of  chastity.  Polygamy 
is  universally  regarded  by  Christendom  as  a  vio- 
lation of  this  law,  yet  no  one  would  claim  that 
monogamy  is  right  on  the  grounds  of  self-evi- 
dence. The  history  of  the  world  and  the  experi- 
ence of  mankind  would  be  against  such  an  asser- 
tion. Fallen  man  has  adopted  monogamic  mar- 
riage only  after  painful  upward  progress  through 
the  centuries,  and  under  the  tutelage  of  divine 
revelation.  Take  another  case.  The  law  for  the 
protection  of  property,  "Thou  shalt  not  steal," 
cannot  be  defended  on  the  basis  of  innate  neces- 


REASON   OF  THE   SABBATH.  3I 

sity.  There  have  not  been  wanting  those  who 
sincerely  have  declared  property  to  be  itself  a 
robbery  of  the  common  heritage  of  all  men. 
Those  ' '  twin  pronouns  of  civilisation, "  "  mine ' ' 
and  "thine,"  have  attained  their  meaning  only 
under  divine  tutorship. 

The  truth  is  that  moral  principles  are  neither 
self-evident  nor  reasonable  to  any  minds  which 
are  not  sufficiently  developed  to  receive  them. 
The  child  and  the  savage  fail  to  recognize  obli- 
gations which  are  instantaneously  accepted  by 
the  adult  and  the  civilized  man.  The  moral  na- 
ture of  man  is  as  capable  of  growth  as  any  part  of 
his  being.  The  enlarging  consciousness  of  new 
and  more  complex  relations  to  other  beings, 
which  can  come  to  man  only  with  experience, 
must  cause  to  expand  within  him  that  moral 
sense  which  perceives  the  reasons  of  any  law. 
To  orders  of  beings  higher  than  ourselves,  and  to 
ourselves  when  we  shall  stand  in  a  clearer  light 
than  that  of  the  present,  and  with  more  perfectly 
developed  faculties,  there  may  be  revealed  moral 
reasons  for  many  things  which  we  now  regard  as 
merely  positive  institutions.  To  such  enlarged 
intelligence  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  may  be  as 
absolute  and  necessary  as  that  of  truth  or  chastity. 
Thus  guarded,  the  distinction  between  moral  and 
positive  precepts  is  a  good  one  and  worthy  of  all 

Abiding  Sabbath.  ■? 


32  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

regard.  Even  if  it  should  be  proved,  which  it  can- 
not, that  the  Sabbath  is  only  a  positive  ordinance 
of  religion,  still  it  would  remain  of  moral  obliga- 
tion for  the  reason  that  a  law  may  be  morally 
binding  without  having  a  moral  foundation.  In 
the  absence  of  any  other  reason,  obedience  is  the 
higher  law.  Let  it  only  be  granted  that  anything 
is  the  w411  of  God,  and  his  creatures  are  bound  to 
obey.  The  will  of  the  Lawgiver  may  not  be  the 
final  foundation  of  the  law,  nor  may  it  afford  full 
satisfaction  to  the  reason,  but  it  is  final  to  the 
subject,  and  the  obligation  imposed  by  it  is  truly 
moral  in  every  sense  in  which  the  word  can  be 
used. 

It  must  also  be  remembered  that  for  a  finite 
being  every  moral  law  must  exist  in  experience 
in  connection  with  positive  elements.  Property, 
marriage,  and  government  are  human  institu- 
tions; but  they  are  founded  on  something  perma- 
nent in  the  moral  nature  of  things.  Perhaps  we 
do  not  see  the  real  moral  essence  of  any  precept; 
all  are  realized  to  us  in  connection  with  finite  re- 
lationships which  embody  their  meaning  and  ex- 
press it  for  us.  In  every  moral  requirement  there 
is  a  permanent  and  a  transient  element.  So  it  is 
with  the  Sabbath.  To  keep  holy  one  day  in 
seven  has  been  revealed  to  us  in  such  circumstan- 
ces and  with  such  sanctions  that  we  must  accept 


REASON   OF  THE   SABBATH.  33 

it  as  a  moral  duty.  But  the  manner  of  observ- 
ance, and  the  particular  day,  with  many  other 
features  of  the  institution,  belong  to  the  positive 
side  of  the  ordinance,  and,  while  morally  obliga-^^ 
tory  for  the  time  of  their  appointment,  are  capable  ' 
of  change,  modification,  and  repeal.  It  is  the 
presence  of  these  positive  elements  which  has 
blinded  many  good  men  to  the  deeper  moral 
meanings  of  the  Sabbath. 

While  it  may  not  be  possible  to  perfectly  vin- 
dicate the  Sabbath  to  reason,  yet  it  has  a  very 
secure  basis  in  reason,  sufficient,  with  the  added 
authority  of  revelation,  to  establish  its  place  in 
the  moral  code.  As  already  shown,  it  comes  to 
us  as  coeval  with  the  formation  of  our  race;  it 
testifies  to  facts  of  universal  import  and  value — 
the  creation  of  the  world,  and  the  spirituality 
both  of  the  Creator  and  man,  his  final  work ;  it  is 
enforced  by  the  example  of  God,  who,  by  incor- 
porating its  essence  in  his  own  being,  has  given 
the  loftiest  sanction  possible  to  its  divine  charac- 
ter and  obligation;  it  is  an  abiding  memorial  of  a 
lost  Sabbatic  state  and  the  continuing  promise  of 
the  great  Sabbath  which  is  to  come.  Having 
such  a  relation  to  the  Creator,  to  the  created 
world,  and  to  man  the  created  master  of  the 
world,  we  should  expect  to  find  in  the  nature  of 
man,  physical  and  moral,  some  proofs  of  the  ne- 


34  ^HE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

cessity  of  a  day  of  rest.  If  this  should  be  found 
to  be  the  case,  we  would  have  as  good  a  right  to 
claim  for  these  reasons  a  moral  foundation  for  the 
law  of  the  Sabbath  as  we  have  to  claim  such  a 
foundation  for  any  other  article  of  the  moral  law. 
Not  one  can  be  established  in  any  other  way. 

The  given  proportion  of  a  seventh  may,  like- 
wise, be  founded  on  some  moral  necessity.  If,  as 
will  be  shown,  man  needs  a  day  of  rest  from  toil, 
and  for  religious  culture,  there  must  be  some  def- 
inite proportion  of  time  which  is,  on  the  whole, 
better  than  any  other  to  be  devoted  to  that  pur- 
pose. It  may  be  granted  that  it  is  beyond  the 
power  of  human  reason  to  fix  the  exact  ratio 
which  would  be  the  best;  but  that  there  is  such 
a  ratio  follows  directly  when  the  need  of  some 
portion  of  time  for  this  purpose  is  considered. 
Reason  teaches  the  need,  and  revelation  has  dis- 
closed the  proportion,  which  has  received  the 
ample  vindication  of  experience. 

The  moral  duties  of  man  may  be  classified 
into  those  which  he  owes  to  himself,  to  his  fel- 
low-men, and  to  God.  To  the  proper  perform- 
ance of  all  of  these  the  Sabbath  is  vitally  rela- 
ted. It  is  therefore  necessary  to  man's  personal, 
religious,  and  social  life,  and  under  these  three 
heads  will  it  be  considered  in  these  pages. 


the;  sabbath  and  thk  individual.     35 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   SABBATH   AND  THE   INDIVIDUAIv. 

"  I  feel  as  if  God  had,  by  giving  the  Sabbath,  given  fifty- 
two  springs  in  the  year."  coleridge. 

*'  Six  days  stern  labor  shuts  the  poor 

From  Nature's  careless  banquet-hall ; 
The  seventh  an  angel  opes  the  door 

And,  smiling,  welcomes  all. 
Six  days  of  toil,  poor  child  of  Cain, 

Thy  strength  thy  master's  slave  must  be ; 
The  seventh  thy  limbs  escape  the  chain ; 

A  God  hath  made  thee  free."  lord  lytton. 

On  some  points  connected  witH  the  Sabbath 
there  is  absolute  agreement  on  all  hands.  That 
a  day  of  rest  from  labor  is  a  most  wise  and  bene- 
ficial arrangement  for  mankind  is  now  an  undis- 
puted proposition.  Those  who  deny  the  moral 
obligation  of  the  day  generally  couple  their  deni- 
als with  the  most  energetic  protests  of  their  alle- 
giance to  the  Sabbath  as  a  necessity  of  the  secular 
life.  John  Stuart  Mill  admits  that  *^  abstinence 
on  one  day  of  the  week,  as  far  as  the  exigencies 
of  life  permit,  from  the  usual  daily  occupation, 
though  in  no  respect  religiously  binding  on  any 
except  Jews,  is  a  highly  beneficial  custom ;' '  *  and 

*  Mill,  Essay  "On  Liberty,"  174,  American  edition. 


36  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

he  therefore  maintains  that  Sunday  laws,  within 
certain  limits,  are  allowable  and  right.  Prof. 
Tyndall,  in  his  Glasgow  lecture  against  the  di- 
vine authority  of  the  Sabbath,  says,  *'Most  of 
those  who  object  to  the  Judaic  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  recognise  not  only  the  wisdom  but  the 
necessity  of  some  such  institution,  not  on  the 
ground  of  a  divine  edict,  but  ofjcommon  sense;'* 
and  he  adds,  ' '  There  is  nothing  that  I  should  with- 
stand more  strenuously  than  the  conversion  of  the 
first  day  of  the  week  into  a  common  working- 
day.''  In  another  passage  of  the  same  address  he 
exhorts :  **  I^et  us,  then,  cherish  our  Sunday  as  an 
institution  inherited  from  our  ancestors ;  but  let 
it  be  understood  that  we  cherish  it  because  it  is 
in  principle  reasonable  and  in  practice  salutary. 
Let  us  uphold  it  because  it  commends  itself  to 
that  'light  of  nature'  w^hich,  despite  the  catas- 
trophe in  Eden,  the  most  famous  theologians 
have  mentioned  with  respect,  and  not  because  it 
is  enjoined  by  the  thunders  of  Sinai."* 

*  Prof.  J.  Tyndall, "  The  Sabbath,"  published  in  the  "  Nine- 
teenth Century,"  Nov.,  1880.  It  is  a  little  startling  to  hear 
some  divines  arguing  that  the  Sabbath  is  only  a  positive  in- 
stitution of  religion  given  on  Sinai,  and  not  a  moral  precept 
revealed  in  the  nature  of  things,  and  then  to  read  this  asser- 
tion of  the  great  physicist  that  the  best  reason  of  the  Sabbath 
is  just  this  light  of  nature  which  theologians  have  declared  to 
give  no  light  whatever  on  the  subject.  This  newly  illustrates 
the  truth  that  higher  than  rational  grounds  must  be  given  for 


THE   SABBATH   AND  THE   INDIVIDUAL.        2>] 

With  this  expression  of  opinion  accords  the 
testimony  of  physiologists,  statesmen,  philanthro- 
pists, and  political  economists,  all  coming  to  the 
same  result  from  their  varied  standpoints  of  view 
and  by  their  various  paths  of  thought.  The  Sab- 
batli  is  acknowledged  by  all  to  be  a  necessity  of 
man's  physical  and  intellectual  life.  As  such  it 
imposes  on  every  man  the  obligation  of  due  ob- 
servance. 

I.  The  Sabbath  is  an  indispettsable  sanitary  pro^ 
vision  for  the  physical  man. 

There  is  a  religion  of  the  body  as  well  as  of 
the  soul.  This  sanctity  of  even  physical  relation- 
ships is  taught  by  Christianity  as  by  no  other  reli- 
gion. By  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  it  has 
taught  the  immortality  of  man — the  whole  man, 
and  not  his  spirit  only.  The  New  Testament 
affirms  that  the  body  is  the  *'  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;'*  that  our  bodies  are  *' members  of  Christ;'* 
and  commands,  '*  Glorify  God  in  your  body;" 
*'  Present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice."  Rom. 
12  :  i;  I  Cor.  6  :  15,  19,  20.  There  is  not  in  the 
Scriptures  any  trace  of  that  old  Platonic  and  later 
Gnostic  contempt  of  matter  which  also  often  ex- 
hibits itself  in  the  hyper-spiritualism  of  to-day, 
but  they  frankly  acknowledge  the  life  of  sense, 

any  moral  precept.    The  phrase,  "  light  of  nature,"  is  wholly 
deceptive. 


38  the:  abiding  sabbath. 

insisting  upon  its  consecration  to  higher  ends. 
Every  bodily  function  is  the  sacrament  of  inner 
spiritual  realities,  and  therefore  to  be  held  in  rev- 
erence. The  care  of  the  physical  well-being  is 
therefore  a  moral  and  religious  duty,  and  impcses 
moral  obligation.  To  knowingly  violate  a  phys- 
Hical  law  is  sin.  **  If  any  man  defile  the  temple  of 
God,  him  shall  God  destroy."  i  Cor.  3  :  17.  No 
man  can  draw  the  line  between  those  grosser  ac- 
knowledged physico-moral  transgressions — licen- 
tiousness and  drunkenness — and  any  lesser  viola- 
tion of  any  law  of  the  bodily  life.  If,  then,  the 
Sabbath  is  shown  to  be  based  on  any  necessity  of 
our  nature  for  physical  rest,  its  moral  obligation 
is  as  fully  shown  as  when  it  is  seen  to  be  closely 
connected  with  the  spiritual  life,  for  the  very 
reason  that  everything  which  affects  one  part  of 
the  being  of  man  affects  the  whole  man. 

The  law  of  rest  is  as  certainly  a  sanitary  law 
as  the  law  of  exercise.  Nature  teaches  this  to  our 
bodies  in  the  fact  of  fatigue  and  the  recurring 
blessing  of  sleep.  Day  and  night  in  constant 
alternation  witness  to  the  constant  necessity  of 
alternate  labor  and  repose.  More  than  this,  in 
nearly  all  disease  both  the  indications  of  nature 
and  the  teachings  of  medical  science  prescribe  for 
a  time  rest  as  a  principal  means  of  cure.  Expe- 
rience shows,  however,  that  the  nightly  repose  of 


THE   SABBATH   AND  THE   INDIVIDUAL.        39 

sleep  does  not  fully  restore  the  physical  balance; 
this  can  be  done  only  by  the  frequent  interposi- 
tion of  a  day  of  rest.  To  establish  this  scientific- 
ally is  a  task  of  some  difficulty,  for  the  reason 
that  all  works  on  Hygiene  assume  Sunday  as  a 
fact,  just  as  they  assume  sleep,  and  therefore  do 
not  argue  the  question  at  all.  But  the  conclusion 
is,  after  all,  a  necessary  one  that  the  repose  which 
is  so  efficient  in  the  restoration  of  health  would 
be  of  still  higher  value  in  its  preservation. 

The  longest-lived  classes  in  society  are  those 
whose  occupation  is  varied  between  mental  and 
physical  toil,  as  in  the  learned  professions,  or 
those  whose  means  give  them  the  opportunity  of 
leisure.  The  mortality  lists  are  constantly  swelled 
from  among  the  laboring  classes.  For  this  class 
of  facts  the  statistics  are  abundant  and  need  not 
be  given.  They  are  the  basis  on  which  all  the 
great  movements  of  the  last  century  for  short- 
ening the  hours  of  labor  have  been  founded.  Dr. 
W.  B.  Carpenter,  the  eminent  physiologist,  in  a 
letter  writes:  "Ten  hours  a  day  is  the  fullest 
amount  that  ought  to  be  assigned  to  continued 
bodily  labor;  and  where  there  is  much  mental 
tension  I  should  say  that  even  this  is  too  much. ' '  * 
It  is  to  working-men,  therefore,  that  the  Sabbath 
as  a  rest-day  comes  most  fully  freighted  with  bless- 
*  "Woolwich  Lectures  on  the  Sabbath,"  53. 


40  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

ing.  "He  who  made  the  Sabbath  loves  the 
poor. "  It  is  one  of  the  guardians  of  labor  against 
the  encroachments  of  capital  and  the  oppression 
of  the  taskmaster.  It  relieves  that  constant  strain 
of  physical  effort  which  is  continually  undermi- 
ning the  strength  of  the  laboring  man. 

More  direct  testimony  may  be  given  from  med- 
ical and  other  authorities.  In  1832  the  British 
House  of  Commons  appointed  a  select  committee 
on  Sunday  observance.  This  committee  took  a 
large  body  of  evidence  bearing  on  this  subject,  all 
being  decisively  in  favor  of  the  sanitary  value  of 
the  day  of  rest.  The  frequently-quoted  testimony 
of  Dr.  Farre  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  whole: 
Av.  *' Although  the  night  apparently  balances  the 
circulation,  yet  it  does  not  sufficiently  restore  its 
balance  for  the  attainment  of  a  long  life ;  hence 
one  day  in  seven,  by  the  bounty  of  Providence,  is 
thrown  in  as  a  day  of  compensation,  to  perfect  by 
its  repose  the  animal  system."  Again  he  testi- 
fies: "  It  is  the  day  of  compensation  for  the  inad- 
equate restorative  power  of  the  body  under  con- 
tinued labor  and  excitement.  In  the  bountiful 
provisions  of  Providence  for  the  preser^-ation  of 
human  life  the  Sabbatical  appointment  is  not,  as 
it  has  sometimes  been  theologically  viewed,  sim- 
ply a  precept  partaking  of  the  nature  of  a  polit- 
ical institution,  but  it  is  to  be  numbered  among 


THE   SABBATH   AND  THE   INDIVIDUAL.        41 

the  natural  duties,  if  the  preservation  of  life  be 
admitted  to  be  a  duty,  and  its  destruction  a  suici- 
dal act. ' '  *  That  the^^auimals  connected  with  man  V 
need  a  Sabbath  for  physical  restoration  was  con- 
firmed before  the  same  committee  by  proprietors 
of  coach-stands,  testifying  that  their  horses  could 
do  a  large  percentage  more  of  work  by  being 
allowed  a  weekly  day  of  rest.f  If  man  were 
nothing  but  an  animal,  the  proof  would  be  com- 
plete that  it  is  for  his  interest  to  observe  the  Sab- 
bath. 

In  the  letter  above  mentioned  Dr.  W.  B.  Car- 
penter writes :  ' '  My  own  experience  is  very 
strong  as  to  the  importance  of  a  complete  rest 
and  change  of  thought  once  a  week. ' ' 

The  celebrated  Boerhaave,  than  whose  no  more 
brilliant  record  fills  the  annals  of  medical  history, 
testified  to  the  need  of  a  holy  day  of  rest,  and 
ascribed  his  own  physical  vigor  to  this  as  well  as 
his  daily  religious  exercises. 

The  late  Prof.  Miller,  of  Edinburgh,  asserts 
that  the  more  the  physiologist  advances  in  the 
exact  knowledge  of  his  science,  the  more  he  will 
be  convinced  that  the  physiology  of  the  Sabbath, 
as  contained  by  manifest  implication  in  God's 
revealed  Word,  is  not  only  true,  but  imbedded 

*  "Report  of  Commons'  Committee,"  116. 
t  Ibid.  126,  127,  130. 


42  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

therein,  and  embodied  in  corresponding  enact- 
ments alike  in  wisdom  and  mercy.  * '  The  night 
is  the  rest  and  the  Sabbath  of  the  day;  the  Sab- 
bath is  the  rest  and  Sabbath  of  the  week." 

In  1853,  641  physicians,  among  whom  was  Dr. 
J.  B.  Farre,  whose  testimony  has  been  given,  pe- 
titioned Parliament  against  the  opening  of  the 
Crystal  Palace  on  Sundays,  urging,  among  other 
things:  "Your  petitioners,  from  their  acquaint- 
ance with  the  laws  that  regulate  the  human  econ- 
omy, are  convinced  that  the  seventh  day  of  rest, 
instituted  by  God  and  coeval  with  the  existence 
of  man,  is  essential  to  the  bodily  health  and  men- 
tal vigor  of  men  in  every  station  of  life."*  In 
this  connection  it  may  be  noted  that  the  petition- 
ers on  this  occasion,  who  numbered  nearly  two 
hundred  thousand  names,  mostly  of  working-men, 
opposed  the  opening  of  the  Crystal  Palace  on  Sun- 
day by  more  than  six  to  one.  In  our  own  country 
medical  opinion  has  been  quite  as  decidedly  in 
favor  of  the  sanitary  value  of  the  day  of  rest. 

Besides  the  direct  method  of  rest,  there  are 
indirect  ways  in  which  the  Sabbath  exercises  a 
beneficial  influence  on  the  health  of  the  people. 
In  that  religion  of  the  body  which  we  call  Hy- 
giene there  is  no  more  important  article  than 
cleanliness.  It  is  among  the  first  of  physical  vir- 
*  "Association  Medical  Journal,"  June,  1853. 


THE   SABBATH   AND  THE   INDIVIDUAI..        43 

tues.  John  Wesley,  indeed,  would  seem  to  have 
placed  it  on  the  very  boundary  of  even  spiritual 
excellence  when  he  said,  "  Cleanliness  is  next  to 
godliness."  Sunday  is  a  day  of  clean  clothing, 
and  naturally  tends,  on  one  day  of  the  week  at 
least,  to  inspire  the  desire  for  neatness  of  apparel 
and  cleanliness  of  person.  It  is  only  the  highest 
civilization  that  has  achieved  in  the  higher  ranks 
of  society  the  daily  tub.  It  is  to  be  feared  that 
the  more  common  weekly  bath  would  be  in  dan- 
ger of  disappearing  should  the  day  of  rest  become 
an  ordinary  day.  A  Sabbath -keeping  and  a 
church-going  people  are  far  more  apt  to  he  a  y 
cleanly  people  than  those  who  neglect  such  ob- 
servances. Any  one  who  is  familiar  with  the 
personal  habits  of  individuals  may  easily  verify 
this  statement.  That  the  Sabbath  generally 
means  a  weekly  ablution  and  change  of  apparel 
is  not  the  least  of  its  advantages  in  a  sanitary 
point  of  view. 

But  health  depends  on  moral  as  well  as  physi- 
cal causes.  Happiness  means  health.  The  Sab- 
bath, truly  used,  is  a  day  of  joy;  it  is  a  real  festi- 
val, and  directly  tends  to  create  those  elevated 
frames  of  mind  which  are  the  surest  undersfirdinof 
support  of  the  bodily  powers.  ' '  The  joy  of  the 
Lord  is  your  strength,"  said  Nehemiah,  one  of 
the  great  Sabbatic  reformers  of  Israel;  and  our 


44  'THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

experience  proves  that  the  cheerful  disposition 
and  the  holy  joy  of  the  true  Christian  are  among 
the  best  preventives  of  disease  and  the  most  effi- 
cient remedies  in  sickness.  Therefore  the  641 
physicians  whose  petition  is  quoted  above  base 
that  petition  on  the  ' '  close  connection  between 
moral  and  physical  disease." 

While  more  exact  observation  and  more  def- 
inite experiment  are  still  to  be  desired  on  this 
subject,  it  cannot  be,  and,  indeed,  is  not,  doubted 
by  any  intelligent  person  that  the  weekly  day  of 
rest  is  a  sanitary  provision  of  the  highest  value, 
and  that  its  beneficent  effects  upon  the  physical 
being  of  man  are  beyond  all  statistical  estimate. 

2.  The  Sabbath  is  needed  by  the  mtellectital 
life. 

*'In  the  world  there  is  nothing  great  but  man; 
in  man  there  is  nothing  great  but  mind."*  Man 
is  a  thinking  animal,  and  it  is  in  thought  that  his 
true  earthly  greatness  is  to  be  found.  Valuable 
and  important  to  him  as  is  his  physical  nature,  its 
worth  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  the  instrument  of 
expression  of  that  disguised  ro3^alty  of  thought 
which  it  incloses.  Matter  is  only  the  tongue  of 
spirit;  the  sound  body  is  but  the  fitting  casket  for 
the  sound  mind.  It  needs  but  little  argument  to 
show  that  man's  intellectual  life  requires  the 
*  "Phavorinus,"  quoted  by  J.  Pico  Mirandola. 


THE   SABBATH  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAI..       45 

Sabbath  for  its  fullest  development  and  highest 
well-being. 

The  mind  is  largely  dependent  on  the  body. 
As  we  come  to  know  more  of  the  physical  organ- 
ism, the  more  apparent  is  it  that  mental  opera- 
tions are  closely  connected  with  physical  states; 
that  they  are  coincident  with  the  formation  and 
dissolution  of  brain  cells;  that  thought  and  feel- 
ing are  closely  intertwined  with  the  growth,  life, 
and  decay  of  nervous  tissue.  In  all  this  there  is 
no  necessary  implication  of  materialism.  It  is 
sufficient  to  know  that  this  body  is  the  soul's 
means  of  development,  through  its  outer  gate- 
ways of  sense  and  inner  coordinations  of  forces 
and  feelings.  Every  argument  which  shows  the 
Sabbath  to  be  a  benefit  to  the  body  of  man  shows 
it  to  be  also  a  need  of  his  intellect.  Indeed,  it  is 
that  part  of  the  organism  with  which  mind  is 
most  closely  connected,  the  nervous  system,  which 
most  loudly  calls  for  and  most  quickly  responds 
to  the  blessing  of  rest.  Nutrition  and  respiration 
may,  apparently,  go  on  without  showing  the  ef- 
fects of  incessant  toil;  but  the  strain  on  the  ner- 
vous system  is  at  once  felt.  The  first  result  of 
Sabbathless  toil  is  the  brutalization  of  man  which 
reveals  the  fact  that  the  light  of  intellect  has  been 
put  out.  The  body  is  no  longer  a  fitting  habita- 
tion for  the  royal  guest  within  it,  but  becomes  a 


46  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

prison-house  instead,  in  which  is  confined  the  de- 
throned majesty  of  mind. 

The  Sabbath  helps,  also,  the  intellectual  life 
of  the  hand-laborer  as  well  as  the  brain-worker. 
It  furnishes  the  opportunity  of  thought  to  men 
whose  whole  lives  would  otherwise  be  spent  in 
the  treadmill  of  material  toil.  Without  it  they 
would  have  neither  the  motive  nor  the  opportu- 
nity for  mental  improvement.  This  use  is  not 
hindered  but  helped  by  the  fact  that  it  is  the  day 
of  religious  worship.  Perhaps  there  is  no  method 
by  which  the  man  w^ho  has  little  time  for  self- 
culture  can  so  well  gain  widened  views  of  life 
and  receive  intellectual  stimulus  as  by  those  min- 
istrations offered  him  by  the  church.  Whether 
or  not  he  is  a  believer,  the  contact  with  religious 
truth  is  a  means  of  education  not  to  be  despised. 
One  day  in  a  week  given  to  the  mere  study  of 
books  could  not  so  fully  acquaint  any  man  .with 
the  universal  aspects  of  human  thought  as  an 
hour  or  two  of  attention  to  that  system  of  truth 
which  touches  human  life  and  culture  at  every 
point.  It  is  hard  to  see  how  the  laborer  could  be 
anything  but  a  machine  without  the  Sabbath.  It 
is  absolutely  essential  to  the  proper  mental  devel- 
opment of  mankind. 

3.  The  Sabbath  is  not  inconsistent  with  personal 
liberty. 


THE   SABBATH    AND   THE   INDIVIDUAL.        47 

Is  the  Christian  Sabbath  inimical  to  personal 
liberty,  and  will  its  observance  interfere  with  the 
proper  development  of  individualism  ?  It  is  not 
uncommon  to  hear  this  question  answered  in  the 
affirmative.  If  the  claim  could  be  made  out,  it 
would  press  with  overwhelming  weight  against 
the  obligation  of  Sabbath  observance:  for  liberty 
is  among  the  highest  blessings;  it  is  the  condition 
of  the  proper  development  of  every  power  and 
faculty  of  man;  without  it  the  highest  forms  of 
character  can  hardly  be  said  to  exist  at  all.  If  it 
can  be  shown  that  the  Sabbath  places  any  re-  Y 
straint  on  the  full  growth  of  any  faculty  or  power 
of  man,  that  it  hinders  the  free  blossoming  and 
fruitage  of  any  germs  within  his  nature,  then  by 
so  much  must  it  be  condemned,  and  all  further 
arguments  and  labored  proofs  in  its  favor  are 
shown  to  be  futile. 

It'  is  an  easy  task  to  show  that  all  such  oppo- 
sition to  the  Sabbath  or  to  Sabbath  legislation  is 
based  on  essentially  false  conceptions  of  the  na- 
ture of  liberty.  When  the  moral  obligation  of 
the  Sabbath  is  established,  all  is  established ;  and 
every  specious  claim  of  a  liberty  that  can  tran- 
scend its  claims  falls  to  the  ground.  There  is  no 
human  freedom  except  within  the  boundaries  of 
the  moral  law.  The  highest  possibilities  of  hu- 
man achievement,  the  sublimest  heights  to  which 


-v.. 


AbiUins  Sabbath. 


i 


48  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

the  soul  can  attain,  and  the  most  glorious  mani- 
festations of  character  and  life  must  be  realized 
beneath  the  all-inclosing  skies  of  duty,  or  not  at 
all.  All  true  freedom  to  the  soul  is  within  the 
claims  of  moral  obligation ;  outside  there  is  noth- 
ing but  bondage.  Under  the  law  of  its  being,  in 
obedience  thereto,  and  there  alone,  has  the  spirit 
of  man  its  true  life,  and  therefore  true  liberty. 
The  Sabbath,  being  of  moral  obligation,  is  for 
that  very  reason  not  a  hindrance  but  a  help  to 
man,  in  consummating  his  true  development  of 
character  and  in  attaining  his  true  destiny.  It  is 
thoroughly  consistent  with  human  freedom.  The 
great  Emancipator  of  human  souls,  Jesus  Christ, 
has  declared  this  unmistakably  in  saying  that 
*'the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man 
for  the  Sabbath. ' '  Because  his  physical  and  men- 
tal powers  cannot  endure  the  strain  of  existence 
without  its  repose;  because  his  moral  being,  in 
which  his  true  greatness  lies,  will  be  surely 
merged  in  animalism  and  enslaved  by  sin  and 
sense  without  its  release  into  the  higher  atmos- 
phere of  religious  feeling,  therefore  man  is  not  to 
regard  the  Sabbath  as  a  crushing  form  to  which 
he  must  adjust  himself,  but  as  a  holy  gift  with  in- 
finite adjustments  to  all  the  needs  of  his  nature. 
Its  obligation,  therefore,  imposes  no  bondage;  but 
its  observance  is  the  road  to  the  highest  and  di- 


THE   SABBATH   AND  THE   INDIVIDUAL.        49 

vinest  liberty  that  any  soul  can  know.  A  further 
answer  to  the  objection  can  be  found  in  the  fair 
application  of  the  law  of  reciprocity.  Even  if 
liberty  is  interpreted  into  license,  no  man  can 
deny  the  right  of  observing  the  day  to  those  who 
wish  to  do  so.  But  that  the  most  may  be  free  to 
enjoy  its  hours  it  is  necessary  that  all  give  it  some 
respect.  The  freedom  of  worship  to  some  implies 
the  duty  of  rest  to  all.  Advocates  of  so-called 
*' personal  liberty"  too  often  forget  that  the  li- 
cense of  action  they  claim  would  involve  the 
grossest  infringement  of  the  sacred  rights  of 
others.  It  is  this  feature  of  the  Sabbath  question 
which  justifies  the  enforcement  of  a  day  of  rest 
and  worship  by  human  government.  It  is  a  sim- 
ple protection  of  that  larger  portion  of  the  com- 
munity who  worship  God  and  recognize  the  duty 
of  obeying  his  laws  in  their  right  so  to  do.  Ex- 
perience has  shown  that  there  is  great  danger  of 
encroachment  on  the  rights  of  others  in  this  re- 
spect. The  Sunday  laws  are  in  the  direction  of 
true  liberty  and  can  never  be  opposed  to  it.  It  is 
clearly  to  be  seen  that  the  abolition  of  such  laws 
would  make  every  day  a  day  of  public  business, 
and  would  therefore  practically  deprive  every 
conscientious  Christian  of  the  power  of  holding 
office.  When  we  place  the  shameless  claims  and 
sophistical  arguments  of  these  would-be  defenders 


50  the;  abiding  sabbath. 

of  the  sacred  rights  of  man  in  the  white  light  of 
duty  and  reason,  their  native  deformity  and  vi- 
ciousness  become  fully  apparent. 

Upon  the  larger  class  of  the  community,  the 
people  who  work  with  their  hands,  the  loss  of  the 
Sabbath  would  come  as  an  act  of  tyranny.  The 
truth  of  this  will  appear  not  only  from  economic 
considerations,  to  be  noted  in  the  next  chapter, 
but  from'  the  fact  that  no  increased  return  would 
follow  the  increase  of  work.  In  the  ' '  Commons' 
Report, ' '  quoted  above,  it  is  stated,  ^ '  The  work- 
men are  aware,  and  the  masters  in  many  trades 
admit  the  fact,  that  were  Sunday  labor  to  cease, 
it  would  occasion  no  diminution  of  the  weekly 
wages."*  And  John  Stuart  Mill,  on  the  same 
point,  says  :  * '  The  operatives  are  perfectly  right 
in  thinking  that  if  all  worked  on  Sunday,  seven 
days'  work  would  have  to  be  given  for  six  days' 
wages. "  t 

The  abolition  of  the  Sabbath  means,  there- 
fore, the  sheer  robbery  of  one  day's  work  in  every 
week  from  the  laboring  men,  who  lose  their  rest 
and  gain  nothing  instead  of  it.  It  follows  from 
this,  although  the  reasoning  cannot  be  given  in 
detail,  that  there  could  not  be  any  profit  at  all  in 
any  kind  of  Sunday  labor  pursued  by  all.     To 

*  "  Report  on  the  Sabbath,"  8. 
t  Essay  "On  Liberty,"  155. 


THE   SABBATH    AND  THE   INDIVIDUAL.        51 

strike  the  day  of  rest  from  the  week  would  be  an 
oppressive  measure  towards  every  class  of  work- 
ers, whether  with  hands  or  brain.  So  much  for 
the  claim  that  personal  liberty  is  infringed  by 
the  Sabbath. 

4.  One  day  in  seven  is  the  best  proportion  for  rest. 

The  divine  wisdom  has  been  manifested  not 
only  in  the  proven  necessity  of  a  day  of  rest,  but 
in  the  proportion  of  time  required.  It  may  not 
be  capable  of  exact  demonstration  that  precisely 
one  day  in  seven  is  the  best  ratio  that  could  be 
chosen.  But  there  must  be  some  proportion  that 
is  better  than  any  other  for  universal  observance, 
and  neither  experience  nor  philosophy  has  been 
able  to  suggest  anything  better  than  one  day  in 
seven.  Consequently,  many  careful  observers 
have  not  hesitated  to  assert  that  a  weekly  Sab- 
bath is  beyond  doubt  the  best  measure  to  be 
applied.  What  is  most  surprising  is  that  these 
testimonies  come  most  positively  from  writers  who 
cannot  be  accused  of  any  extreme  prejudices  in 
favor  of  religious  institutions.  Two  such  testimo- 
nies will  be  given. 

Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  in  his  *'Briefe  an 
eine  Freundin,''  says: 

*'I  completely  agree  with  you  that  the  insti- 
tution of  fixed  days  of  rest,  even  if  it  had  no 
connection  with  relio:ious  observance,  is  a  most 


52  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

pleasing  and  truly  refreshing  idea  to  every  one 
who  has  a  humane  mind  towards  all  classes  of 
society.  The  selection  of  the  seventh  day  is  cer- 
tainly the  wisest  that  could  have  been  made. 
Although  it  may  seem,  and  to  some  extent  may 
be,  optional  to  shorten  or  lengthen  labor  one  day, 
I  am  convinced  that  six  days  is  the  just  and  true 
measure  suitable  to  men  in  regard  to  their  phys- 
ical powers  and  perseverance  in  a  monotonous 
employment.  There  is  likewise  something  hu- 
mane in  this,  that  the  beasts  that  aid  man  in  his 
labor  share  in  the  rest.  To  lengthen  the  time  of 
returning  rest  beyond  measure  would  be  as  inhu- 
man as  foolish.  I  have  had  an  example  of  this  in 
my  own  experience.  /When  I  spent  several  years 
in  Paris  in  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  I  saw  this 
institution,  despite  its  divine  origin,  superseded 
by  the  dry  and  wooden  decimal  system.  Only 
the  tenth  day  was  what  we  call  Sunday,  and  all 
customary  work  continued  for  nine  long  days. 
This  being  evidently  too  long,  Sunday  was  kept 
by  several  as  far  as  the  police  laws  would  permit 
it,  and  thus  again  too  much  idleness  was  the  re- 
sult. Thus  we  are  always  between  two  extremes 
so  far  as  we  remove  from  the  safe  and  regulated 
middle  path." 

The  other  passage  is  from  an  argument  in 
favor  of  Sunday  observance  from  a  purely  secular 


THE   SABBATH   AND   THE   INDIVIDUAI..        53 

standpoint,  by  Proudhon,  the  French  socialist, 
and  is  as  follows: 
I  "What  statistician  could  have  found  out  for 
the  first  time  that  ordinarily  the  period  of  work 
ought  to  bear  to  the  period  of  rest  the  exact  pro- 
portion of  six  to  one  ?  Therefore  Moses,  who  had 
to  arrange  for  a  nation  the  labors  and  days,  rests 
and  festivals,  works  of  the  body  and  exercises  of 
the  soul,  the  laws  of  hygiene  and  morals,  politic 
economy  and  individual  subsistence,  took  refuge 
in  a  science  of  numbers,  in  a  transcendental  har- 
mony which  took  in  all  space,  time,  duration, 
motion,  spirits,  bodies,  the  holy  and  the  profane. 
The  certainty  of  the  science  is  proved  by  the  re- 
sult. Decrease  the  week  by  only  one  day,  an(^ 
the  labor  is  insufficient  for  the  repose;  increase  it 
by  the  same  amount,  and  it  is  too  much.  Fix 
every  three  days  and  a  half  a  half-day  of  relaxa- 
tion, and  you  increase  by  dividing  the  day  the 
loss  of  time ;  and  by  breaking  the  natural  unity 
of  the  day  the  numerical  balance  of  things  is 
broken.  If  you  grant,  on  the  other  hand,  forty- 
eight  hours  of  rest  after  twelve  consecutive  days 
of  work,  you  kill  the  man  with  inertia  after  hav- 
ing exhausted  him  with  fatigue."* 

While  the  decree  of  infinite  Wisdom  has  no 
need  of  human  confirmation,  such  testimonies  as 
*  Proudhon,  "  De  la  Calibration  du  Dimanche,"  67. 


54  'THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

these  have  their  vahie.  That  God's  revelation  in 
his  Book  is  consonant  with  his  revelation  in  na- 
ture, sets  upon  the  former  anew  the  seal  of  divine 
authority.  Just  the  parallelism  between  the  Bible 
and  nature  which  we  would  expect  to  find  is  sup- 
plied by  these  testimonies.  By  themselves  these 
natural  reasons,  perhaps,  could  not  establish  a 
moral  duty;  but  when  they  are  connected  w^ith  a 
positive  command  of  God  they  help  to  raise  it  to 
the  rank  of  a  moral  precept. 

If  this  question  were  to  be  decided  by  authority 
merely,  who  could  impeach  the  testimony  of  such 
reformers  as  Knox  and  Wesley,  such  statesmen  as 
Burke  and  lyincoln,  such  soldiers  as  Cromwell  and 
Washington,  such  jurists  as  Sir  Matthew  Hale 
and  John  Marshall,  such  lawyers  as  Blackstone 
and  Webster,  such  divines  as  Howe  and  Edwards, 
such  philosophers  as  Bacon  and  Locke,  such  sa- 
vants as  Newton  and  Agassiz,  such  philanthro- 
pists as  Howard  and  Wilberforce,  such  physicians 
as  Carpenter  and  Dr.  John  Brown,  such  essayists 
as  Addison  and  John  Foster,  such  historians  as 
Macaulay  and  Hallam,  such  poets  as  Herbert, 
Cowper,  and  even  Byron,  such  political  econo- 
mists as  Adam  Smith  and  Stuart  Mill,  such  lit- 
erary men  as  Walter  Scott  and  Samuel  Johnson, 
such  scholars  as  Sir  Wm.  Jones  and  Chevalier 
Bunsen?  all  of  whom,  from  their  varied  stand- 


THE   SABBATH   AND  THE)    INDIVIDUAL.        55 

points,  have  declared  that  a  day  of  rest  is  of  the 
highest  value  to  mankind,  that  it  is  an  inestima- 
ble boon  to  be  guarded  and  preserved.  Such  una- 
nimity of  opinion  from  such  varying  sources  can 
be  accounted  for  only  on  the  assumption  that 
'  human  nature  everywhere  feels  the  need  of  a  Sab- 
bath, that  the  whole  being  of  man  requires  its 
restoring  power  both  for  body  and  mind. 

This  chapter  may  be  properly  concluded  by  a 
quotation  of  singular  power  of  language,  written 
by  a  journeyman  printer  of  Scotland,  a  pri^e  essay 
on  the  Sabbath  : 

*' Yoke-fellow  !  think  how  the  abstraction  of 
the  Sabbath  would  hopelessly  enslave  the  work- 
ing classes  with  which  we  are  identified.  Think 
of  labor  going  on  in  one  monotonous  and  eternal 
cycle,  limbs  for  ever  on  the  rack,  muscles  for  ever 
straining,  the  brow  for  ever  sweating,  the  feet  for 
ever  plodding,  the  brain  for  ever  throbbing,  the 
shoulders  for  ever  drooping,  the  loins  for  ever 
aching,  and  restless  mind  for  ever  scheming. 

*' Think  of  the  beauty  it  would  efface,  the 
merry -heartedness  it  would  extinguish,  of  the 
giant  strength  it  would  tame,  of  the  resources  of 
nature  it  would  crush,  of  the  sickness  it  would 
breed,  of  the  projects  it  would  wreck,  of  the  groans 
it  would  extort,  of  the  lives  it  would  immolate, 
and  of  the  cheerless  graves  it  would  prem.aturely 


/ 


56  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

dig.  See  them  toiling  and  moiling,  sweating  and. 
fretting,  grinding  and  hewing,  weaving  and  spin- 
ning, strewing  and  gathering,  mowing  and  reap- 
ing, razing  and  building,  digging  and  planting, 
striving  and  struggling — in  the  garden  and  in  the 
field,  in  the  granary  and  in  the  barn,  in  the  fac- 
tory and  in  the  mill,  in  the  warehouse  and  in  the 
shop,  on  the  mountain  and  in  the  ditch,  on  the 
roadside  and  in  the  wood,  in  the  city  and  in  the 
country,  on  the  sea  and  on  the  shore,  in  the  day 
of  brightness  and  of  gloom.  What  a  picture  would 
the  world  present  if  we  had  no  Sabbath  !"* 

*  John  Quinton,  "  Temporal  Advantage  of  the  Sabbath  to 
the  Laboring  Classes."  This  essay  took  the  first  of  three 
prizes.  Of  the  three  essays  published  there  have  probably 
been  nearly  a  miUion  copies  circulated. 


THK  SABBATH   AND   SOCIETY.  57 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   SABBATH   AND  SOCIETY. 

"  The  keeping  of  one  day  in  seven  holy,  as  a  time  of 
relaxation  and  refreshment  as  well  as  public  worship,  is  of 
inestimable  benefit  to  a  State  considered  merely  as  a  civil 
institution."  blackstone. 

As  are  the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  so 
is  the  life  of  man  under  the  control  of  a  centrif- 
ugal and  a  centripetal  force.  The  first  is  the  ten- 
dency to  individualism,  the  assertion  of  his  own 
personality;  the  latter  is  the  social  force  which 
tends  to  merge  his  unit  in  the  mass  of  humanity. 
One  strives  to  maintain  his  life  in  its  own  proper 
orbit;  the  other  holds  him  in  harmony  with  the 
whole  universe  of  moral  beings,  and  conditions 
his  action  by  their  existence.  Between  the  sweep 
of  these  two  mighty  forces,  the  sway  of  self-will 
and  the  claims  of  society,  man's  life,  like  a  pen- 
dulum, swings  backward  and  forward.  Human 
history  could  be  written  in  conformity  with  this 
formula,  and  all  its  phenomena  might  be  shown 
to  be  but  the  temporary  predominance  of  one  or 
the  other  of  these  tendencies.  Authority  and 
freedom,  empire  and  the  individual,  such  are  the 


58  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

constant  antagonisms  to  bring  about  whose  har- 
mony the  world  exists. 

Since  man  is  a  being  with  social  relations, 
and  since  his  life  is  largely  modified  by  those  re- 
lations, we  cannot  fully  estimate  the  value  of  the 
Sabbath  until  we  have  measured  its  effect  upon 
those  organized  forms  of  human  life,  the  commu- 
nity and  the  nation.  And  it  needs  only  the  most 
superficial  observation  to  come  to  the  same  con- 
clusion with  perhaps  the  most  profound  student 
of  the  conditions  of  social  and  national  pros- 
perity w^ho  ever  lived,  who  said:  *'The  Sabbath 
as  a  political  institution  is  of  inestimable  value, 
independently  of  its  claims  to  divine  author- 
ity.''* 

The  germ  of  a  social  organization  is  the  fam- 
ily. Such  is  the  testimony  of  our  personal  con- 
sciousness, as  well  as  of  all  research  into  the  ori- 
gin of  municipal  institutions.  The  first  knowl- 
edge w^e  possess  of  social  relationships  and  social 
order  is  that  which  came  to  us  from  the  home 
when  we  first  felt  the  loving  limitations  of  pater- 
nal and  fraternal  law.  The  home  is  the  first  and 
holiest  temple  of  religion;  the  family  is  the  first 
and  best  form  of  government ;  the  father  is  its 
ministering  priest  and  its  only  king  by  divine 

*  Adam  Smith,  quoted  in  Chambers'  '*  Life  of  Sir  John 
Sinclair." 


THE   SABBATH   AND   SOCIETY.  59 

right.  No  higher  test  can  be  applied  to  any  civ- 
ilisation than  this:  Is  its  prosperity  built  upon 
and  guarded  by  holy  and  happy  homes  ?  It  has 
been  well  said  that  ' '  the  humble  hearth-stone  is 
the  corner-stone  of  the  temple  and  the  founda- 
tion-stone of  the  city. ' '  Happy  is  the  man  whose 
childhood  was  shaped  by  its  sacred  influences  and 
lessons,  whose  manhood  knows  its  mighty  inspi- 
rations, and  whose  old  age  shall  be  spent  in  its 
precious  asylum  of  tender  companionship  and  af- 
fection !  Happy  the  land  whose  glory  and  strength 
is  built  upon  the  closely  linked  confederacy  of  pi- 
ous domestic  institutions ! 

Without  the  Sabbath,  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  the  home  in  its  highest  and  best  form 
cannot  exist;  for  religion  is  the  only  guardian  of 
the  sanctity  of  the  family  relation,  and  without 
the  day  of  religion  that  relation  will  become  but 
a  ruined  temple,  whose  crumbling  remains  tell 
only  of  a  bygone  glory.  It  certainly  is  a  sugges- 
tive fact  that  we  know  of  but  two  primitive  insti- 
tutions, marriage  and  the  Sabbath.  They  were 
granted,  a  twin  benediction,  to  man  in  the  para- 
dise of  his  infancy;  they  are  linked  together  in- 
dissolubly  in  sacredness  and  mutual  relationship; 
they  are  the  ever-present  joys  rescued  from  a  lost 
Bden,  and  the  constant  promise  of  a  regained 
paradise  and   an  everlasting  rest.      Marriage  is 


/ 


6o  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

the  foundation  of  the  home,  and  the  Sabbath  is 
its  surest  guardian  and  strongest  security. 

It  is  a  fact  of  the  weightiest  import  that  the 
Sabbath  and  the  family  go  up  and  down  together, 
as  witnessed  by  the  testimony  of  facts.  European 
writers  have  vied  with  each  other  in  praising  the 
domestic  virtues  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States.  Madame  De  Stael  writes:  *' Nowhere  can 
be  seen  such  faithful  protection  on  one  side,  and 
such  tender  and  pious  devotedness  on  the  other, 
as  in  married  life  in  England."  De  Tocque- 
ville,  in  his  ' '  Democracy  in  America, ' '  gives  sim- 
ilar testimony  as  to  the  American  family.  But 
these  are  the  very  nations  noted  above  all  others 
for  firmness  of  moral  fibre.  Who  shall  say  how 
much  the  Sabbath  has  had  to  do  in  building  up 
that  vertebrate  morality  which  reveals  itself  in 
happy  homes  and  in  inspiring  the  conquering 
Anglo-Saxon  race  of  to-day,  which  has  girded  the 
world  with  empire,  with  its  intense  energy  of 
character  ? 

It  is  not  less  suggestive  that  the  decline  of 
Sabbath  observance  has  always  been  accompa- 
nied by  a  decline  in  the  sacredness  in  which  the 
marriage  relation  is  held.  The  nations  of  south- 
ern Europe  furnish  a  constant  example  and  warn- 
ing. The  shocking  prevalence  of  infanticide  and 
illegitimacy  among  those  people  furnishes  a  burn- 


THE   SABBATH   AND   SOCIETY.  6l 

ing  commentary  on  our  text.  In  France,  during 
the  Revolution,  the  substitution  of  dietenth  for 
the  seventh_day  was  accompanied  by  a  divorce 
law,  under  whose  provisions  within  three  months 
there  was  recorded  one—divorce  for  every  threg. 
marriages  in  Paris  alone.  Even  in  England  and 
America  these  latter  days  of  growing  Sabbath 
desecration  have  been  attended  with  an  increase 
of  crimes  against  the  family.  The  Sunday  open- 
ing of  concert-halls,  public-houses,  and  theatres 
in  our  cities,  the  growing  popularity  of  Sun- 
day resort  to  watering-places  and  picnic  gar- 
dens, and  the  systematic  violation  of  the  sacred 
day  by  railway  and  steamship  companies,  have 
been  followed  in  equal  pace  with  crowded  dock- 
ets in  the  divorce  courts  and  growth  of  the  social 
evil. 

Now  this  coincidence  between  a  holy  day  and 
a  holy  home  cannot  be  entirely  accidental.  It  is 
too  uniform  and  persistent  to  be  so  regarded. 
One  reason,  doubtless,  is  that  both  alike  are 
grounded  in  the  moral  life  of  the  individual,  and 
so  rise  and  fall  together  with  the  flow  and  ebb  of 
that  life.  But  that  there  is,  as  well,  a  rational 
connection  between  the  two  is  evident  from  two 
or  three  considerations.  First,  whatever  benefits 
the  individual  must  benefit  the  family.  If  each 
member  of  the  home  is  physically  and  religiously 


62  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

profited  by  tlie  Sabbatli,  the  aggregate  effect  must 
be  for  the  welfare  of  the  entire  household.  Sec- 
ondly, a  day  of  religion  is  necessary  to  the  exist- 
ence of  religion,  and  without  religion  the  family 
must  perish.  The  love  which  builds  up  a  Chris- 
tian home  is  something  different  from  the  savage 
affection  of  the  animal.  It  is  based  upon  spirit- 
ual facts  and  recognises  religious  obligations. 
Religion  must  inspire  its  devotion  as  well  as 
teach  its  duties;  its  sacred  flame  must  be  lighted 
at  the  altars  of  God.  Consequently  there  is  not  a 
message  which  the  Sabbath  brings,  not  a  thought 
to  which  its  proper  use  gives  birth,  not  a  feeling 
which  it  cherishes,  but  helps  in  the  sanctification 
of  the  home  life  and  in  purifying  the  sources  of 
domestic  virtue.  Thirdly,  the  Sabbath  gives  di- 
rect opportunity  for  the  cultivation  of  family  re- 
lationships. Through  the  work-days  of  the  week 
the  members  of  a  household  are  separated  from 
each  other  by  the  necessities  of  toil.  The  day  of 
rest  regathers  them  at  the  hearth-stone,  reknits 
the  half-severed  ties  of  fellowship,  and  unseals 
the  fountains  of  common  sympathy  and  affection. 
It  furnishes  larger  opportunity  for  the  religious 
instruction  of  children.  Without  it  the  family 
could  hardly  realise  its  unity  in  the  fullest  extent, 
and  the  roof- tree,  ceasing  to  be  love's  sanctuary, 
would  become  but  the  lodging-house  of  individu- 


THE   SABBATH   AND   SOCIETY.  63 

als  ignorant  of  the  highest  happiness  and  desti- 
tute of  the  most  salutary  influence  that  personal 
or  national  life  can  know.  With  the  Sabbath 
the  home  must  stand  or  fall.  For  the  defence  of 
the  fireside  its  sacred  hours  of  worship  and  rest 
must  be  kept  inviolate. 

The  influence  '  of  the  Sabbath  on  society  is 
felt,  however,  not  only  through  its  effects  on  the 
family,  but  directly.  So  conservative  a  writer  as 
Sir  William  Blackstone  has  said:  '' Besides  the 
notorious  indecency  and  scandal  of  permitting 
any  secular  business  to  be  publicly  transacted 
on  that  day  in  a  country  professing  Christianity, 
and  the  corruption  of  morals  which  usually  fol- 
lows its  profanation,  the  keeping  of  one  day  in 
seven  holy,  as  a  time  of  relaxation  and  refresh- 
ment as  well  as  public  worship,  is  of  inestimable 
benefit  to  a  State,  considered  merely  as  a  civil  in- 
stitution. It  harmonizes,  by  the  help  of  conver- 
sation and  society,  the  manners  of  the  lower 
classes,  which  would  otherwise  degenerate  into  a 
sordid  poverty  and  savage  selfishness  of  spirit;  it 
enables  the  industrious  workman  to  resume  his 
occupation  in  the  ensuing  week  with  health  and 
cheerfulness ;  it  impresses  on  the  minds  of  the 
people  that  sense  of  duty  to  God  so  necessary  to 
make  them  good  citizens,  but  which  yet  would 
be  worn  out  and  effaced  by  an  unremitting  con- 

Abiaing  Sabbath.  C 


64  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

tinuance  of  labor  without  any  stated  time  of  re- 
calling them  to  the  worship  of  their  Maker."* 

The  great  expositor  of  the  English  law  has 
here  stated  almost  the  whole  case.  The  Sabbath 
is  vital  to  the  material  prosperity,  the  general  in- 
telligence, and  the  morals  and  manners  of  a  na- 
tion. Under  these  heads  its  public  benefits  can 
properly  be  considered. 

I.  TJie  eco7toinic  welfaj'e  of  the  State  is  closely 
connected  with  the  Sabbatic  institution  ajtd  its  proper 
observance. 

Wealth  is  a  result  of  the  action  of  man  on 
nature;  or,  to  define  more  narrowly,  is  the  effect 
of  such  a  union  of  human  labor  with  the  natural 
resources  of  the  earth  as  to  transform  them  into 
commodities  useful  to  man.  It  is  evident  that 
the  human  factor  is  not  the  least  important. 
Whatever  therefore  affects  the  health,  intelli- 
gence, and  morals  of  a  people,  affects  immedi- 
ately and  directly  the  production  of  wealth.  The 
beneficial  influence  of  the  Sabbath  in  these  re- 
spects has  elsewhere  been  shown,  and  the  conclu- 
sion follows  that  the  financial  prosperity  of  the 
State  is  furthered  by  the  observance  of  a  day  of 
rest.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  religious 
use  of  fifty-two  days  in  the  year  directly  enhances 

*  Blackstone,  "  Commentaries  on  the  Laws  of  England." 
Book  IV.  chap.  63. 


THE   SABBATH   AND  SOCIETY.  65 

the  work  of  the  remaining  days  to  a  much  greater 
amount  than  the  market  value  of  the  time  thus 
apparently  lost.  Productive  labor  depends  on 
conditions  of  health,  intelligence,  and  character 
which  are  directly  connected  with  the  institution 
of  the  Sabbath. 

Unremitting  toil  robs  labor  of  the  bounding 
pulse  of  physical  vitality  and  the  spring  of  gener- 
ous moral  impulse,  which  are  among  the  highest 
elements  in  productive  industry;  and  thus  is  the 
State  robbed  of  one  of  the  foundation-stones  of  its 
prosperity. 

Lord  Macaulay,  on  the  lowest  ground  indeed, 
but  not  less  positively,  has  defended  this  position. 
In  his  speech  on  the  Ten  Hours  Bill  he  says: 

"The  natural  difference  between  Campania 
and  Spitsbergen  is  trifling  when  compared  with 
the  difference  between  a  country  inhabited  by 
men  full  of  mental  and  bodily  vigor  and  a  coun- 
try inhabited  by  men  sunk  in  bodily  and  mental 
decrepitude.  Therefore  it  is  that  we  are  not 
poorer  but  richer  because  we  have  through  many 
ages  rested  from  our  labor  one  day  in  seven. 
That  day  is  not  lost.  While  industry  is  suspended, 
while  the  plough  lies  in  the  furrow,  while  the 
exchange  is  silent,  while  no  smoke  ascends  from 
the  factory,  a  process  is  going  on  quite  as  impor- 
tant to  the  wealth  of  nations  as  any  process  which 


H^ 


66  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

is  performed  on  more  busy  days.  Man,  the  ma- 
chine of  machines,  the  machine  compared  with 
which  all  the  contrivances  of  the  Watts  and  Ark- 
wrights  are  worthless,  is  repairing  and  winding 
up,  so  that  he  returns  to  his  labors  on  the  Mon- 
day with  clearer  intellect,  with  livelier  spirits, 
and  with  renewed  corporal  vigor.  If  the  Sunday 
had  not  been  observed  as  a  day  of  rest,  but  the 
axe,  the  spade,  the  anvil,  and  the  loom  had  been 
at  work  every  day  during  the  past  three  centu- 
ries, I  have  no  doubt  that  we  should  have  been 
at  this  moment  a  poorer  people  and  a  less  civil- 
ised people  than  we  are. ' ' 

It  is  not,  however,  in  its  effects  on  man's  bod- 
ily powers  alone  that  the  beneficial  influence  of 
the  Sabbath  is  manifested.  There  are  moral  ele- 
ments  entering  into  all  industrial  effort,  not  easily 
measured  by  statistics,  but  easily  appreciable  in 
fact.  Just  as  the  patriot  is  a  better  soldier  than 
the  mercenary,  so  is  the  craftsman  who  has  a  cul- 
tivated emotional  and  moral  nature  superior  to 
the  merely  mechanical  worker  whose  exertions  in 
man's  behalf  are  on  the  same  level  with  those  of 
the  horse  or  the  ox.  And  this  will  show  itself 
not  only  in  the  amount  of  work  done,  but  in  its 
quality  as  well.  David  Hume,  who  certainly  was 
not  a  slave  to  spiritual  abstractions,  writes  :  "We 
cannot  reasonably  expect  that  a  piece  of  woollen 


THE   SABBATH   AND  SOCIETY.  67 

clotH  will  be  brought  to  perfection  in  a  nation 
which  is  ignorant  of  astronomy  or  where  ethics  are 
neglected,'' "^"^  Even  the  most  exact  student  of  po- 
litical economy  must  admit  the  supreme  impor- 
tance of  these  unseen  factors  in  the  material  pros- 
perity of  nations. 

Work  without  cessation  will  affect  the  charac- 
ter of  products  not  only  by  the  imperfect  perform- 
ance caused  by  flagging  strength,  but  by  destroy- 
ing the  moral  tone  of  the  laborer  and  crushing  the 
energy  of  his  spirits.  lyCt  the  wheels  of  toil  grind 
on  without  rest,  and  nothing  can  result  but  stupe- 
faction of  the  finest  qualities  in  the  human  factor 
of  wealth.  Besides,  it  may  be  affirmed  that  the 
existence  of  such  an  active  moral  and  intellectual 
life  among  working  men  as  can  be  secured  only 
by  a  well-guarded  Sabbath  is  a  direct  stimulus  to 
inventive  genius,  and  that  to  this  we  owe  many 
of  those  wonderful  applications  of  the  physical 
forces  and  mechanical  powers  which  have  cheap- 
ened the  cost  of  living  to  the  millions,  increased 
the  comfort  of  mankind,  and  added  to  the  wealth 
of  communities  and  States. 

The  remark  of  Hume,  quoted  above,  suggests 

a  still  deeper  and  broader  range  of  inferences  than 

these.      All  physical  civilization  rests  on  moral 

causes.     Without  the  stimulus  of  his  mental  and 

*  Hume's  Essays,  "  On  Luxury." 


V 


68  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

spiritual  energies  man  would  soon  cease  to  inter- 
est himself  in  either  trade  or  manufacture.  The 
multiplication  of  human  wants,  which  alone  in- 
spires the  effort  to  supply  them,  keeps  even  step 
with  the  moral  development  of  man.  Those  finer 
sensibilities  which  demand  and  consume  the  high- 
er products  of  toil  are  but  a  manifestation  of  a 
larger  feeling  of  human  dignity,  a  higher  sense  in 
man  of  the  essential  worth  of  his  being.  Making 
and  buying  and  selling  are  only  new  assertions  of 
the  spirituality  of  man.  The  savage  has  few 
wants ;  the  civilized  man  has  many,  and  they 
have  followed  in  the  train  of  more  largely  devel- 
oped mental  and  moral  powers.  Wealth,  one  of 
the  symbols  of  man's  greatness,  may  indeed  be 
mistaken  for  the  reality.  What  is  but  an  acci- 
dent of  the  spiritual  progress  of  humanity  may  be 
largely  confounded  with  the  substance.  But  the 
truth  remains  that  the  growing  demands  of  man 
which  directly  control  all  his  industrial  life  have 
their  origin  in  his  highest  nature  as  a  spiritual 
and  supernatural  being.  Whatever  raises  a  com- 
munity in  the  moral  scale  will  increase  in  that 
community  a  demand  for  the  products  of  human 
toil,  and  will  thus  directly  stimulate  production. 
A  nation  or  community  which  knows  the  moral 
uplifting  of  the  Sabbath  will  by  so  much  be  a 
larger  consumer  of  the  results  of  productive  toil, 


THE   SABBATH   AND   SOCIETY.  69 

and  thus  aid  in  bringing  about  that  reciprocal 
action  of  supply  and  demand  which  is  the  swing- 
ing pendulum  controlling  the  mechanism  of  the 
economic  system.  The  Sabbath  assists  in  the 
creation  of  wealth  by  its  effect  both  on  the  pro- 
ducer and  on  the  consumer. 

While  the  above  argument,  resting  on  eco- 
nomic principles  which  are  undisputed,  has  all 
the  force  of  a  demonstration,  the  case  will  not  be 
weakened  by  bringing  the  testimony  of  facts  to 
the  support  of  theory.  In  one  of  the  royal  manu- 
factories of  Great  Britain  it  was  found  "that  the 
workmen  who  obtained  government  consent  to 
abstain  from  working  on  Sunday  executed  in  a 
few  months  even  more  work  than  the  others. ' '  * 

Similar  experiments  have  been  made  in  the 
public  service  of  other  nations,  as  well  as  by  pri- 
vate parties,  and  with  invariably  the  same  result. 
That  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  have 
made  the  most  rapid  increase  in  material  prosper- 
ity is  coincident  with  the  fact  that  they  are  marked 
among  nations  as  most  strict  in  their  religious  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath.  The  fact  is  placed  in 
the  most  striking  light  when  the  United  States 
are  contrasted  with  the  Spanish  republics  of 
America.  Fairly  equal  in  their  start  and  in  the 
physical  resources  of  climate  and  soil,  the  Sab- 
*  "Life  of  Wilberforce,"  I.  275. 


70  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

bath-keeping  republic  is  the  wonder  of  the  world, 
while  the  others  are  to-day  hardly  above  the  grade 
of  semi-barbarism.  Ireland  is  naturally  a  richer 
country  than  Scotland.  They  are  inhabited  by 
branches  of  the  same  race.  In  the  matter  of  land- 
tenure  there  are  even  fewer  peasant  proprietors  in 
Scotland  than  in  Ireland.  Nowhere  in  the  world, 
however,  has  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath  taken 
so  deep  a  root  as  among  the  Scotch  people.  What 
is  the  result?  In  spite  of  a  vicious  system  of  land- 
tenure,  an  inhospitable  climate,  and  a  barren  soil, 
the  Scottish  people  must  be  ranked  among  the  most 
enlightened  and  happy  communities  in  the  world, 
while  the  natives  of  the  fertile  Green  Isle,  know- 
ing only  the  popish  holiday  of  Sunday  without  its 
Sabbath  rest,  are  the  objects  of  the  world's  pity  in 
their  poverty,  wretchedness,  and  degradation.  In 
Ireland  itself  the  distinction  is  deeply  marked  be- 
tween the  steady  business  habits  and  commercial 
activity  of  Sabbath-keeping  Ulster  and  the  reck- 
lessness, destitution,  and  business  stagnation  of 
the  south  and  west  of  the  island.  Similar  con- 
trasts, not  less  striking,  can  be  drawn  between  the 
condition  of  the  French  portions  of  Canada  and 
the  Protestant  settlements,  and  between  the  Prot- 
estant and  Roman-catholic  cantons  of  Switzer- 
land. It  would  be  possible  to  go  farther  and  show 
that  in  any  community  those  classes  that  observe 


THE   SABBATH   AND   SOCIETY.  71 

the  Sabbath  are  most  prosperous,  that  they  are 
better  fed  and  clothed  than  others;  that  Sabbath- 
breaking  neighborhoods  are  the  abode  of  pauper- 
ism and  vice ;  and  that  in  every  way  social  and 
national  wealth  everywhere  follows  that  social 
and  national  religious  life  which  demands  the 
Sabbath  for  its  proper  nurture  and  maintenance. 

2.  The  Sabbath  is  vitally  related  to  good  citizen- 
ship. 

Wealth,  although  it  is  an  important  element 
in  human  happiness,  is  not  the  only  nor  the  chief 
element  of  a  nation's  greatness.  When  the  young 
colonies  of  America  struqfo^led  to  release  them- 
selves  from  British  dominion,  with  hungry,  bare- 
footed soldiers  and  an  empty  treasury,  the  United 
States  was  not  the  less  a  great  nation,  even  then, 
because  of  poverty.  The  nation  was  rich  and 
strong  in  the  manly  strength  of  free  men  and  in 
the  loyal  love  of  patriotic  hearts.  Here  is  the 
true  grandeur  of  any  people,  that  its  glory  is 
founded  in  the  exalted  personal  character  of  its 
citizens;  these  are  its  walls  of  strength,  which,  like 
those  of  Sparta,  are  not  of  brick  or  stone,  but  of 
the  firmer  structure  of  an  approved  manhood. 
Towards  the  production  of  such  a  character  no 
means  can  be  more  essential  than  those  institu- 
tions of  religion  which  depend  upon  the  observ- 
ance of  the  Sabbath.      Without  this  witness  to 


72  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

tlie  Spirituality  of  man  and  to  his  moral  dignity 
it  is  certain  that  the  highest  excellence  of  person- 
al and  national  life  cannot  be  attained. 

A  very  vigorous  American  orator  has  said: 
*'Safe  popular  freedom  consists  of  four  things, 
and  cannot  be  compounded  of  any  three  out  of 
the  four:  the  diffusion  of  liberty,  the  diffusion  of 
intelligence,  the  diffusion  of  property,  and  the  dif- 
fusion of  conscientiousness.  In  the  latter  work  the 
church  is  the  chief  agent;  and  her  most  potent 
instrumentality  we  call  the  Sabbath.'*  He  goes 
on  to  remark,  ' '  I  am  no  fanatic,  I  hope,  as  to 
Sunday;  but  I  look  abroad  over  the  map  of  pop- 
ular freedom  in  the  world,  and  it  does  not  seem  to 
me  accidental  that  Scotland,  England,  and  the 
United  States,  the  countries  which  best  observe 
Sunday,  constitute  almost  the  entire  map  of  safe 
popular  government. "  *  ^ '  Social  sanity, ' '  a  phrase 
used  by  the  same  speaker,  pretty  nearly  expresses 
the  total  effect  of  Sabbath  observance  upon  the 
whole  community.  Where  it  is  neglected  we 
surely  find  social  insanity,  manifesting  itself  in 
constant  revolution,  outbreaks,  and  restlessness. 
Ordered  liberty  needs  the  Sabbath.  Without  it 
the  State  is  the  continual  prey  of  either  the  tyrant 
or  the  demagogue,  is  for  ever  falling  into  one  of 
the  extremes,  despotism  or  anarchy. 

*  Joseph  Cook,  "  Biology."    Prelude  to  Lecture  VIII. 


THE    SABBATH    AND   SOCIETY.  J  7^ 

Real  civil  liberty  depends  upon  the  moral  con- 
dition of  the  citizens. 

"  He  is  the  free  man  whom  the  truth  makes  free, 
And  all  are  slaves  besides." 

A  people  who  are  in  the  bondage  of  vices,  pas- 
sions, or  errors  cannot  be  disenthralled  by  a  sim- 
ple decree  of  State.  Moral  serfdom  will  every- 
where produce  civil  vassalage.  The  weekly  day 
of  rest,  which  releases  man  from  the  material 
bonds  of  toil  and  gives  him  the  freedom  of  a  lar- 
ger life,  is  therefore  one  of  the  very  best  adapted 
means  to  fit  the  citizen  for  prizing,  enjoying,  and 
maintaining  political  freedom.  When  the  work- 
man knows  no  weekly  deliverance  from  his  tasks 
he  has  already  become  a  slave;  to  realize  his  free- 
dom he  needs  an  occasional  day  in  which  he  is 
delivered  from  the  undue  exactions  of  labor  and 
from  the  sense  of  dependence  upon  his  employer. 
And  this  deliverance  is  best  provided  in  a  day  of 
religion,  w^ith  its  lofty  inspirations  and  its  enlar- 
ging sense  of  the  dignity  and  possibilities  of  the 
soul.  Such  a  day  is,  as  well,  a  memorial  to  the 
rich  and  strong  of  their  duty  to  the  poor  and 
weak.  Thus  both  ruler  and  ruled,  employers 
and  employed,  are  blessed  by  its  presence. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  despotic  rulers  have 
attempted  to  turn  the  Sabbath  from  a  day  of  wor- 
ship into  a  day  of  amusement,  in  order  to  divert 


74  ^HE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

the  people  from  that  serious  thought  which  would 
wake  within  them  the  might  of  manhood.  Hal- 
lam  is  not  the  only  historian  who  has  noticed  this 
tendency  of  tyrants.  ''A  holiday  Sabbath  is  the 
ally  of  despotism. "  Such  rulers  as  Charles  II.  of 
England  have  practised  with  some  success  this 
device.  Yet  the  policy  is  a  short-sighted  one  for 
the  reason  that  a  Sabbathless  people,  while  inca- 
pable of  freedom,  are  equally  unfit  for  govern- 
ment of  any  kind.  In  the  political  earthquakes 
of  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
former  half  of  the  nineteenth  the  Roman-catho- 
lic countries  of  Europe  suffered  most  and  the 
Protestant  nations  least,  and  almost  in  proportion 
to  the  respect  shown  to  the  Sabbatic  institutions 
among  them.  But  Great  Britain,  first  in  its  reli- 
gious regard  of  the  IvOrd's  day,  was  quite  unsha- 
ken amid  the  convulsions  which  made  the  Conti- 
nent tremble.  The  close  connection  of  the  Sab- 
bath with  social  order  and  national  tranquillity  is 
further  exemplified  by  the  fact  that,  at  this  very 
time,  nearly  every  European  power  is  burdened 
by  expensive  military  establishments  and  large 
standing  armies,  while  England  and  the  United 
States,  most  prosperous  of  all,  have  the  smallest 
standing  armies,  and  those  almost  wholly  quar- 
tered in  the  distant  colonies  and  on  the  frontiers 
of  civilization.     The  peace  that  Sunday  brings  is 


THE   SABBATH   AND   SOCIETY.  75 

the  best  bulwark  of  national  peace.  These  facts 
have  forcibly  impressed  acute  Continental  observ- 
ers and  such  authorities  as  Chevalier  Bunsen,* 
the  German  historian,  and  Montalembert,t  the 
French  statesman,  that  the  secret  of  England's 
prosperity  is  to  be  found  in  the  Sabbath  rest  and 
its  influence  and  teachings. 

Military  as  well  as  civic  virtues  thrive  under 
the  fostering  care  of  the  day  of  rest.  On  the 
coming  of  the  hard  occasion  when  the  nation 
needs  defence  against  her  foes,  the  influence  of 
religious  culture  on  the  people  may  be  clearly 
felt  and  seen.  Ever  since  the  days  of  the  Macca- 
bees, when  a  heroic  people  fought  for  a  Sabbath, 
waging,  perhaps,  the  first  war  for  conscience^  sake 
the  world  has  known,  down  to  the  American  civil 
war,  armies  have  depended  for  victory  not  merely 
on  numbers,  but  on  that  prowess  which  comes 
from  faith  in  the  Lord  of  Hosts  and  is  nurtured 
by  his  institutions  of  w^orship  and  rest.  Perhaps 
never  before  or  since  did  so  invincible  a  band  of 
soldiers  go  forth  to  war  as  Cromwell's  God-fearing 
and  Sabbath-keeping  "  Iroxi£lads. "  And  the  ^ 
glory  of  such  soldiers  appears  not  only  in  their 
courage  on  the  field  of  battle,  but  in  the  ease 

*  Bunsen,  "Hippolytus  and  his  Age,"  II.  16-18. 
t  "  Report  on  Sunday  Observance  to  the  French  Parlia- 
ment," 1850. 


76  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

with  whicli  they  go  back  to  the  common  labor  of 
life.  Macaulay  says  of  Cromwell's  troops:  "In 
a  few  months  there  remained  no  trace  indicating 
that  the  most  formidable  army  in  the  world  had 
just  been  absorbed  into  the  community.'"^  On  a 
larger  scale,  after  the  American  Rebellion,  more 
than  a  million  citi;5en-soldiers  of  North  and  South 
quietly  disbanded,  and,  without  social  disturb- 
ance or  marked  increase  of  crime,  went  back  to 
their  homes  and  the  vocations  of  peace.  Such 
self-restraint  and  moral  balance  as  this  is  one  of 
the  marked  effects  of  an  honored  Sabbath.  Such 
examples  are  unknown  in  nations  destitute  of  its 
full  observance. 

Intelligence,  morality,  religion,  these  are  some 
of  the  requisites  of  good  citizenship.  These,  as 
is  elsewhere  proved,  are  directly  connected  with 
a  holy  Sabbath.  Upon  it,  then,  directly  rests 
the  perpetuity  of  nations.  To  attempt  the  con- 
duct of  national  life  without  it  would  be  to  try 
the  most  fearful  experiment  ever  made  in  human 
history.  God  dishonored,  his  Book  rejected,  his 
Sabbaths  desecrated — these  things  would  be  the 
sure  prelude  to  the  same  terrible  fate  that  has 
befallen  the  godless  civilizations  of  the  past. 
Judsea,  Greece,  and  Rome  warn  us  to-day. 

*  "History  of  England."    Vol.  I. 


THE   SABBATH   AND   REUGION.  77 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   SABBATH   AND   RELIGION. 

"  There  can  be  no  religion  without  worship,  and  no  wor- 
ship without  Sunday."  montalembert. 

"  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  without  the  Sunday  the 
church  of  Christ  could  not  as  a  visible  society  exist  on  the 
earth."  macleod. 

The  life  of  man  is  threefold — the  life  of  sense, 
of  thought,  and  of  faith.  By  his  body  man  is  re- 
lated to  nature,  by  his  soul  to  created  intelligen- 
ces, and  by  his  spirit  to  God  and  spiritual  things. 
And  these  three  things  together  make  up  man. 
Just  so  far  as  he  lacks  either  of  these  forms  of  con- 
sciousness his  being  is  incomplete.  But  that  life 
of  the  spiritual  nature  which  we  call  religion  is  the 
crown  and  glory  of  all  life.  For  its  sake  the  body 
and  mind  of  man  exist,  and  to  it  all  things  are 
ministrant.  It  is  in  the  nurture  of  this  life  in  man 
that  the  Sabbath  reveals  its  highest  uses  and  dis- 
closes its  inner  meaning. 

The  two  preceding  chapters  have  given  what 
may  be  called  the  secular  argument  for  a  day  of 
rest.  If  man's  whole  existence  were  to  be  spent 
on  the  plains  of  mortality;  if  there  never  came  to 
his  being  the  stir  and  sweep  of  those  strong  pin- 


78  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

ions  of  spiritual  aspiration  which  bear  him  to- 
wards the  everlasting  hills,  even  then  the  Sab- 
bath would  come  with  a  w^eekly  blessing  and 
refreshment  to  weary  body  and  mind.  Yet  it 
may  be  doubted  whether  an  institution  based  on 
so  weak  a  foundation  as  this  could  continue  to 
exist.  Indeed,  nothing  high  or  noble  can  have 
any  permanent  life  save  as  it  is  derived  from  spir- 
itual inspirations.  The  physical  and  the  intellect- 
ual life  can  vindicate  themselves  only  by  showing 
themselves  the  matrix  in  which  the  divine  life  is 
developed.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
whole  value  of  life  in  any  worthy  human  sense  is 
derived  from  religion.  It  is  therefore  the  strong- 
est claim  that  can  be  made  in  behalf  of  the  Sab- 
bath when  it  is  shown  that  it  is  supremely  not 
the  day  of  rest  alone,  but  the  day  of  religion,  and 
that  to  any  worthy  development  of  the  religious 
life  it  is  absolutely  indispensable. 

In  the  statement  of  the  secular  argument 
which  has  been  given,  reference  has  been  con- 
stantly made  to  this  higher  point  of  view,  and  it 
is  only  from  this  mount  of  vision  that  those  lower 
considerations  can  thoroughly  vindicate  them- 
selves to  reason.  Sanitary  and  economic  consid- 
erations can  impose  no  moral  obligation,  unless 
we  look  upon  man  and  human  society  as  having 
eternal  relations  to  God  and  an  unchanging  law 


THE   SABBATH   AND   REUGION.  79 

of  righteousness.  There  is  a  difference  between 
utility  and  duty.  The  ideas  involved  in  them 
are  as  different  as  the  words  themselves.  The 
desire  for  health,  wealth,  and  knowledge  does  not 
become  a  moral  motive  until  these  things  are  re- 
garded not  as  temporal  blessings  alone,  but  as  the 
ministers  of  spiritual  good.  The  full  force  of  the 
secular  argument  depends  therefore  on  this,  that 
we  inseparably  connect  the  Sabbath  with  reli- 
gion. Figures,  statistics,  scientific  experiment, 
and  observation  are  well  enough  in  their  w^a}', 
but  they  become  luminous  in  their  highest  beauty 
only  when  there  shines  in  them  that  ' '  light  that 
never  was  on  land  or  sea."  Yet  the  secular 
ground  of  the  Sabbath  must  not  be  slighted.  If 
the  argument  is  on  a  low  plane,  yet  for  that  very 
reason  it  has  its  force  for  the  unspiritual  mind 
incapable  of  a  higher  standpoint ;  and  even  the 
religious  thinker  cannot  be  displeased  to  have  the 
structure  of  his  faith  rest  on  the  ground,  although 
its  pinnacles  may  pierce  the  clouds.  Let  us  re- 
joice that  on  these  very  grounds,  inadequate  as 
they  are,  many  have  advocated  a  day  of  rest  who 
are  utterly  regardless  of  its  religious  claims.  This 
belief  is  at  least  one  round  by  wdiich  they  may 
mount  to  a  more  adequate  conception.  INIan  cannot 
give  one  day  of  rest  to  his  body  without  its  bring- 
ing some  higher  lessons  to  his  immortal  nature. 

Abiding  6«bbath.  6 


V 


8o  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

While  the  entire  being  of  man  was  intended 
by  God  to  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  itself,  it  is 
not  so  in  fact.  Sin  has  placed  a  dividing  chasm 
between  his  physical  and  spiritual  natures.  ' '  The 
flesh  lusteth  against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit 
against  the  flesh."  Gal.  5  :  17.  It  is  this  antag- 
onism, so  deeply  felt  by  man,  which  has  induced 
many  to  think  that  matter  is  essentially  evil,  and 
that  the  body  is  the  source  of  sin.  But  the  real 
fact  is  that  neither  in  matter  nor  in  the  flesh  is 
there  anything  innately  corrupt.  It  is  sin  which 
has  introduced  war  into  the  being  of  man  and 
placed  his  higher  and  lower  natures  in  opposition 
one  to  the  other.  Therefore  it  is  that  the  promise 
of  redemption  includes  the  promise  of  a  spiritual 
body,  that  is,  one  which  shall  perfectly  respond 
to  and  express  the  life  of  the  spirit.  But  this  we 
have  not  yet  attained.  While  ' '  at  home  in  the 
body"  we  are  still  *' absent  from  the  Lord,"  and 
in  this  mortal  tenement  ' '  we  groan,  being  bur- 
dened." 2  Cor.  5:2-8.  The  cares  of  life,  its 
labors  and  its  pains,  all  come  to  distract  the  gaze 
of  the  spirit  that  we  would  fain  fix  upon  the 
mountain  -  tops,  which,  above  the  clouds  of  our 
earthly  trouble,  for  ever  glow  beneath  the  touch 
of  the  everlasting  light. 

How  is  man  to  reconcile  his  earthly  condition, 
the  imperative  demands  of  his  body,  and  the  out- 


THE   SABBATH   AND   RELIGION.  8l 

ward  limitations  which  nature  imposes  upon  him, 
with  the  higher  necessity  of  communion  with 
God  ?  It  is  for  the  solution  of  this  problem,  in 
part,  that  the  Sabbath  exists.  It  comes  to  still 
with  its  touch  the  din  of  secular  life,  to  lift  the 
yoke  of  toil  from  weary  shoulders,  and  to  unseal 
the  spiritual  senses  that  can  behold  the  larger  life 
and  hear  the  music  of  the  '*  choir  invisible."  It 
is  the  summit  of  the  week,  raised  above  all  com- 
mon thoughts  and  w^orks,  above  the  sense-bound 
world;  an  Ararat  where  the  ark  of  the  soul  may 
rest  after  being  tossed  on  its  weekly  deluge  of 
cares;  a  Sinai  where  still  the  Eternal  speaks  his 
awful  but  needed  lessons  of  human  duty;  a  Her- 
mon  where  again  Jesus  in  transfigured  glory  stands 
before  us ;  an  Olivet  where  our  straining  eyes 
catch  not  indistinct  glimpses  of  the  ascended 
Lord.  And  on  this  mount  of  blessing  we  taber- 
nacle not  now  for  ever,  but  ever  leave  its  radiant 
heights  to  carry  something  of  its  glory  through 
the  work-days  of  the  week.  Its  gifts  of  grace  are 
to  be  the  inspiration  of  daily  toil ;  after  the  trans- 
figuration splendor  comes  the  casting  out  of  devils 
on  the  plain.  In  this  way  does  the  Sabbath  help 
to  close  up  the  deep  rent  which  sin  has  made  in 
the  life  of  man,  and  bring  again  spirit  and  nature 
into  harmony.  Not  only  is  it  a  reminiscence  of 
that  Edenic  rest,  when  God,  man,  and  nature  were 


82  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

in  perfect  unison ;  not  only  does  it  point  forward 
to  the  great  renewal  when  the  whole  creation  shall 
shine  in  her  robes  of  coronal  glory,  but  it  gives  to 
man  even  now  some  taste  of  the  substance  of  that 
eternal  life,  forfeited  by  the  fall,  regained  in  Christ, 
and  to  be  perfected  at  his  second  coming. 

It  is  frequently  contended  by  opponents  of  the 
Sabbath  that  "relegating  religious  duties  to  cer- 
tain periods  and  days  is  most  grateful  to  human 
nature,  but  radically  hostile  to  Christian  princi- 
ples. ' '  *  There  is  a  certain  deceptive  plausibility 
about  this  theory  that  every  day  should  be  a  Sab- 
bath which  might  lead  men  astray,  were  it  not  so 
easy  to  discern  that  this  very  view  is  precisely  the 
one  most  grateful  to  that  human  nature  which  it 
so  loudly  affects  to  despise.  An  every-day  Sab- 
bath means  ultimately  no  Sabbath  at  all.  The 
keen  and  caustic  thrust  of  Irving  is  not  unde- 
served : 

*'  Shrewd  men,  indeed,  these  new  reformers  are! 
Each  week-day  is  a  Sabbath,  they  declare : 
A  Christian  theory !    The  unchristian  fact  is 
Each  Sabbath  is  a  week-day  in  their  practice." 

Let  it  be  freely  granted  that  religion  should 
permeate  the  whole  life  and  not  be  confined  to 
certain  days  and  acts;  that,  in  some  sense,  every 

*  Baden  Powell,  "  Christianity  against  Judaism,"  187.   See 
also  Stanley's  "  Life  of  Arnold." 


THE   SABBATH   AND   REUGION.  83 

meal  should  be  a  sacrament,  every  act  of  labor  a 
prayer,  and  every  word  a  benediction.  Eating 
and  drinking  and  all  things  should  shine  with  the 
"  glory  of  God. "  To  the  consecrated  spirit  the 
veriest  drudgery  of  life  is  ennobled,  and  the  sur- 
rounding walls  of  material  environment  become 
almost  crystal  -  clear  to  let  through  the  divine 
glory.  But  this  does  not  supersede  the  need  of 
special  seasons  of  communion  with  God.  The 
command,  *'Pray  without  ceasing,"  does  not 
make  stated  worship  less  valuable  or  even  less 
necessary.  Quite  the  contrary;  it  is  the  hour  of 
prayer  alone  that  gives  that  spirit  of  prayer  which 
abides  with  us  during  the  whole  day.  So  it  is 
only  a  hallowed  Sabbath  that  can  lend  a  Sab- 
bath's blessing  to  the  entire  week.  It  is  just  such 
a  condescension  to  human  nature  as  are  the  sac- 
raments, easily  bridging  for  us  the  gulf  between 
the  seen  and  the  unseen.  That  all  things  are 
alike  holy  is  not  true.  Both  Scripture  and  con- 
science refuse  to  place  all  things  and* acts  on  the 
same  level.  The  very  meaning  of  the  word 
"holy"  is  against  such  a  supposition.  The  very 
conditions  of  our  present  life  imply  a  distinction 
between  the  things  that  are  worldly  and  the  things 
that  are  heavenly.  Worldly  things,  indeed,  should 
be  transfused  with  the  light  of  the  heavenly  things; 
but  the  difference  exists,  for  all  that.     To  utterly 


84  the:  abiding  sabbath. 

confuse  the  two  would  be  to  endanger  all  the  in- 
terests of  man.  It  never  is  done,  however,  except 
in  words.  Those  who  pretend  to  make  all  things 
equally  sacred  really  make  nothing  so.  There 
is  a  cant  of  supercilious  spiritualism  as  much  to 
be  avoided,  and  quite  as  offensive,  as  that  of  a 
rigid  formalism.  It  is  impossible  to  introduce  on 
earth  a  state  of  things  which  only  the  conditions 
of  the  heavenly  state  can  realise.  The  Sabbath 
has  typical  meanings  not  yet  fulfilled.  In  heaven, 
and  there  alone,  will  man  celebrate  an  eternal 
Sabbath.  And  until  its  meaning  is  consummated 
in  that  more  glorious  life,  the  Sabbath  must  abide 
as  the  prophet  of  its  coming  blessedness  and  the 
school  which  shall  prepare  man  for  its  holier  em- 
ployments. 

Religion  requires  stated  seasons  for  its  observ- 
ances. Bishop  Andrews  said,  long  ago,  "The 
heathen  men  by  the  light  of  nature  have  seen 
that  everything  is  then  best  ordered  when  it  hath 
but  one  office;  that  is,  wdiatsoever  is  done,  it  must 
be  thoroughly  done,  it  must  be  alonely  done.  The 
reason  is,  we  are  finite  creatures,  and  if  two  things 
be  done  at  once,  one  part  of  our  thoughts  will  be 
taken  from  the  other;  we  cannot  wholly  intend  two 
things  at  once."*  If  to  other  duties  we  properly 
give,  for  their  better  performance,  their  particu- 
*  Bishop  Andrews,  "  The  Moral  Law  Expounded,"  328. 


THIi   SABBATH   AND   REUGION.  85 

lar  seasons  and  appointed  times,  liow  mucli  more 
necessary  and  proper  it  is  to  have  determinate 
times  for  those  duties  which  undergird  and  in- 
spire all  others — the  offices  of  worship  and  spirit- 
ual exercise.  And  more  than  this,  these  seasons 
must  be  periodic,  must  return  with  regularity. 
The  law  of  habit,  so  powerful  to  fix  and  ingrain 
evil  on  the  soul,  must  be  enlisted  on  the  side  of 
goodness.  To  give  the  Sabbath  its  full  value  in 
the  discipline  of  life,  the  waves  of  its  cleansing 
must  beat  with  regular  rhythm  upon  the  life  of 
man.  It  must  come  one  day  in  seven.  That 
proportion  which  is  found  to  be  best  to  mark 
the  rest  required  for  the  body  and  mind,  which 
has  been  indorsed  by  sanitary  and  economic  law, 
and  which,  above  all,  has  been  disclosed  by  reve- 
lation, is  without  doubt  the  best  for  the  culture  of 
the  religious  nature. 

Public,  even  more  than  personal,  religion  de- 
pends on  the  existence  of  a  day  of  worship.  It  is  . 
possible  that  Sunday  as  a  day  of  rest  might  for  a  r\ 
short  time  survive  the  destruction  of  the  Chris- 
tian church,  but  Christianity  could  not  endure 
without  its  Sabbath.  This  society  which  we  call 
the  church  has  in  it  many  features  analogous  to 
the  Sabbath.  It  has  an  inward,  unseen  life  of  its 
own,  a  spiritual  existence  as  the  kingdom  of  God; 
it  has  likewise  outward  forms  of  varying  manifes- 


86  the:  abiding  sabbath. 

tatiou  in  organizations  and  rites,  which  are  tran- 
sient and  changing.  But  it  is  necessary  for  its 
work  in  the  world  that  in  some  form  it  should  be 
visible.  It  must  have  a  definite  setting  in  time 
and  space  before  it  can  touch  us  time-and-space- 
imprisoned  spirits.  Its  only  temporal  institution 
is  the  Sabbath.  Without  that  institution  it  could 
not  exist.  Every  sanction  of  the  church  is  also  a 
sanction  of  the  Sabbath.  The  "gates  of  hell 
shall  not  prevail"  against  the  Lord's  day  any 
more  than  against  his  church,  for  they  are  both 
founded  upon  the  rock  of  his  Divinity. 

To  give  up  the  day  of  public  worship  would 
be  in  time  to  give  up  public  worship  altogether. 
It  could  not  long  persist  without  its  appointed 
seasons.  Give  up  the  Sabbath,  and  soon  no  in- 
viting bells  would  sweep  down  the  busy  streets, 
into  the  palaces  of  the  rich  or  the  cottages  of  the 
poor,  with  their  sweet  call  to  praise  and  prayer; 
soon  no  united  voice  of  singing  would  raise  its 
holy  hymns  to  mingle  with  the  harmony  of 
heaven;  and  soon  the  preaching  of  the  declared 
will  of  God  and  the  glad  offer  of  his  salvation 
would  be  stilled  for  ever,  and  the  last  prophetic 
voice  that  still  cries  in  the  wilderness  of  this 
world  would  be  hushed  into  enduring  silence. 
*' Where  there  is  no  vision  the  people  perish," 
Prov.  29: 1 8,  and  when,  through  the  loss  of  the 


THE   SABBATH   AND   RELIGION.  87 

one  day  of  outlook,  all  spiritual  vision  is  lost, 
when  church  spires  no  longer  point  heavenward 
nor  cast  their  reproving  shadows  across  the  mar- 
ket-place, then  indeed  shall  the  earth  be  cursed 
of  God,  and  the  "abomination  of  desolation"  be 
set  up.  Thus  along  another  line  of  thought  we 
find  the  Sabbath  to  be  our  guardian  against  a 
reign  of  universal  brutishness. 

These  considerations,  which  arise  from  the 
moral  necessity  of  the  case,  are  abundantly  con- 
firmed by  experience.  Of  the  value  of  the  Sab- 
bath to  personal  religion  the  w^hole  story  can 
never  be  told,  for  the  reason  that  the  hidden  life 
is  never  garrulous;  it  ever  shrinks  from  revealing 
its  inmost  feelings  to  the  gaze  of  the  world. 

"God  only  and  good  angels  look 
Behind  the  blissful  screen." 

Yet  it  may  be  safely  averred  that  the  holiest 
character  everywhere  has  been  nurtured  by  the 
Sabbath.  The  gentle  spirit  of  Rutherford,  the 
compassionate  love  of  Howard,  the  untiring  zeal 
of  Wesley,  the  self-denying  saintliness  of  Fletcher 
of  Madeley,  the  intelligent  devotion  of  Jonathan 
Edwards,  the  blood-earnestness  of  Chalmers,  all 
these,  and  the  list  might  be  extended  to  take  in 
almost  every  name  on  the  bead-roll  of  Protestant 
saintship,  have,  as  witnessed  by  personal  testimo- 


88  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

nies,  found  the  Sabbath  indispensable  to  the 
\  growth  of  that  inner  life  of  communion  with  God 
and  that  outer  life  of  benevolent  activity  for 
which  they  were  so  preeminent.  Chalmers  says, 
"We  never,  in  the  whole  course  of  our  recollec- 
tions, met  with  a  Christian  friend  who  bore  upon 
his  character  every  other  evidence  of  the  Spirit's 
operation  who  did  not  'remember  the  Sabbath 
day  to  keep  it  holy.'  "  It  is  recorded  of  Eliot, 
the  missionary:  "  His  observance  of  the  Sabbath 
was  remarkable.  Every  day  was  a  sort  of  Sabbath 
to  him;  but  the  Sabbath  was  with  him  a  type 
and  foretaste  of  heaven;  nor  would  you  hear  any- 
thing drop  from  his  lips  on  that  day  but  the  milk 
and  honey  of  that  country  in  which  there  yet 
'  remaineth  a  rest  for  the  people  of  God. ' ' '  With 
this  testimony  accord,  so  far  as  we  can  know,  the 
teaching  and  practice  of  all  those  holy  souls  who 
have  loved  God  supremely  and  their  neighbor 
with  equal  reciprocal  affection. 

Where  Christianity  is  purest  the  Sabbath  is 
best  observed.  While  it  is  not  within  the  proper 
bounds  of  this  work  to  claim  any  special  superi- 
ority for  any  communion  of  Christians,  that  Prot- 
estantism is  to  be  preferred  to  Romanism  may 
be  safely  claimed,  not  only  on  the  grounds  of 
Scriptural  authority,  but  by  the  logic  of  history. 
And  it  would  seem  perfectly  fair  to  assert  that 


f 


THE   SABBATH   AND   RELIGION.  89 

among  the  Protestant  churches  those  deserve  pre- 
eminence which  are  most  largely  engaged  in 
philanthropic  work,  which  have  the  greatest 
evangelistic  zeal,  which  are  most  earnestly  work- 
ing for  the  conversion  of  the  world,  and  which 
most  emphatically  regard  religion  as  the  great 
business  of  life.  He  who  has  read  these  words 
knows  already  without  controversy  what  reli- 
gious societies  are  meant.  The  great  evangelical 
churches  of  Europe  and  America,  the  churches 
whose  religion  is  the  Bible,  whose  head  is  Jesus 
Christ,  and  whose  faith  is  in  his  atonement,  these 
are  the  bodies  which  most  sacredly  regard  the 
Sabbath  day  and  most  earnestly  press  its  observ- 
ance upon  all  men.  Whether  their  keeping  of 
the  Sabbath  is  the  cause  or  effect  of  their  active 
religious  life  and  purity  of  doctrine  is  not  materi- 
al; probably  it  is  partly  both.  All  truth  is  related 
to  all  truth,  and  acts  and  reacts  on  all  truth.  So 
the  Sabbath  is  not  less  the  security  of  orthodoxy 
than  is  orthodoxy  the  security  of  the  Sabbath.  If 
the  authority  of  the  Sabbath  is,  therefore,  to  be 
tested  by  its  relationship  to  other  religious  truths, 
the  argument  for  its  high  obligation  is  the  strong- 
est possible,  for  it  has  always  been  vitally  related 
to  the  highest  standards  of  Christian  doctrine  and 
life. 

This  is  also  exemplified  by  the  fact  that  spe- 


90  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

cial  religious  revival  lias  always  stood  related  to 
a  freshened  earnestness  of  Sabbath  observance. 
The  great  Puritan  movement,  which,  in  spite  of 
all  its  extravagance  and  fanaticism,  was  inspired 
by  the  breath  of  God,  with  doubtless  too  great  ri- 
gidity, yet  with  imflinching  devotion  to  the  Word 
of  God,  gave  honor  to  his  Sabbaths.  Some  day, 
perhaps,  history  will  learn  to  fairly  judge  these 
Puritans,  and  when  that  day  comes  we  shall  find 
ourselves  accepting,  almost  without  reserve,  not 
in  full  detail  but  in  outline,  their  ideals  of  truth 
and  life,  and  with  these  not  a  gloomy  but  a  holy 
Sabbath.  Those  writers  who  criticise  severely 
the  Puritans,  and  have  no  words  of  reproach  for 
that  shameful  period  which  they  choose  to  call 
*' reaction,"  in  the  days  of  Charles  II.,  are  guilty 
of  the  most  contemptible  moral  obliquity.  Hu- 
man nature  is  too  prone  to  ' '  react '  ^  against  good- 
ness; but  that  fact  casts  no  shadow  of  blame  on 
piety,  and  does  not  make  it  decent  to  abuse  it. 
Puritanism,  as  a  great  moral  and  spiritual  refor- 
mation, testifies  to  the  high  religious  need  of  a 
Sabbath.  With  the  Puritans'  mode  of  observ- 
ance we  have  nothing  to  do;  to  the  need  of  ob- 
servance their  intense  religious  consciousness  em- 
phatically testifies. 

The  great  Methodist  revival  teaches  the  same 
lesson.     The  Earl  of  Stanhope  indeed  complains. 


THE   SABBATH   AND   RELIGION.  91 

as  have  others,  of  Puritanism,  that  "it  is  one  of 
the  ill  effects  of  Methodism  that  it  has  tended  to 
narrow  the  circle  of  innocent  enjoyments."  It  is 
possible  that  neither  Puritans  nor  Methodists 
were  fully  aware  of  how  much  they  were  to  be 
pitied  in  this  regard !  William  Jay,  speaking  of 
his  personal  acquaintance  with  some  persons  who 
were  converted  under  the  preaching  of  Wesley 
and  Whitefield,  and  who  were  still  living,  says, 
"The  Sabbath  was  their  delight,  and  they  num- 
bered the  days  till  its  arrival. ' '  A  day  so  longed 
for  could  hardly  have  been  a  day  of  mortifica- 
tion and  of  gloom.  No  one  can  adequately  meas- 
ure the  results  of  this  eighteenth  century  revival. 
It  lives  to-day  in  a  quickened  Christendom,  in 
great  missionary  societies,  in  the  Sunday-school; 
it  has  touched  all  the  springs  of  modern  philan- 
thropic effort.  In  its  beginning,  and  through  all 
its  history,  not  only  in  the  religious  societies 
which  it  originated,  but  in  its  influence  on  the 
whole  Christian  church,  it  has  testified  to  the 
Sabbath. 

The  proof  is  complete  that  the  religious  con- 
sciousness at  its  best  feels  the  need  of  the  day  of 
rest  and  worship,  both  for  the  individual  and  the 
organized  religious  life. 

The  religious  use  of  the  Sabbath,  as  has  been 
intimated,  is  the  only  security  for  its  secular  ob- 


92  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

servance.  We  may  go  farther  and  contend  that 
its  secular  value  largely,  if  not  wholly,  depends 
on  its  hours  being  employed  religiously.  This  is 
the  reason,  and  it  deserves  a  record  in  letters  of 
gold :  the  life  of  the  spirit  is  the  great  vitalizer  and 
restorer  of  mind  a7id  body  I  The  truest  rest  is  not 
always  inaction,  is  not  always  to  be  found  in  pas- 
sive repose.  Idleness  is  not  restorative,  but  de- 
bilitating both  to  mind  and  body.  The  real  idea 
of  the  Sabbath  is  not  repose,  but  power.  In 
physics  there  is  a  difference  between  rest  and  in- 
ertia: the  former  is  the  cessation  of  motion;  the 
latter  is  the  absence  of  force.  Rest  comes  by 
equilibrium  of  forces.  The  highest  rest,  there- 
fore, is  to  be  found  in  something  positive,  and 
not  by  mere  negation  of  activity.  It  means  re- 
covery, restoration  of  power.  Man  rests  his  mind 
by  changing  the  character  of  its  effort.  Such 
must  be  the  life  of  heaven;  not  one  of  vain  en- 
deavor or  of  unmeaning  indolence,  but  that  of 
fully  balanced  action  and  untiring  energy. 

"  Rest  is  not  quitting 

This  busy  career, 
Rest  is  the  fitting 

Of  self  to  one's  sphere. 
'T  is  the  brook's  motion, 

Clear  without  strife, 
Seeking  the  ocean 

After  its  life. 


THK   SABBATH   AND   REUGION.  93 

'T  is  loving  and  serving 

The  highest  and  best ; 
'T  is  onward,  unswerving, 

And  this  is  true  rest."* 

The  only  road  away  from  the  treadmill  of 
earthly  toil  is  that  which  leads  outward  into  spir- 
itual activity.  On  this  road  the  Sabbath  is  the 
open  gateway;  or,  rather,  it  brings  down  heaven 
to  man's  inmost  being,  and  gives  him  weekly 
contact  with  its  very  essence.  Out  of  this  world 
of  power  alone  can  come  power  to  our  human  na- 
turp.  Spirit  alone  never  tires,  and  only  from  the 
spirit  can  new  energy  be  derived  for  the  flagging 
strength  of  man.  The  words  of  the  prophet  abide 
still  in  unchanged  force  of  meaning:  ''They  that 
wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew  their  strength; 
they  shall  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles;  they 
shall  run  and  not  be  weary;  they  shall  walk  and 
not  faint."     Isaiah  11:31. 

The  Sabbath  is,  therefore,  necessary  to  man's 
highest  nature;  it  leads  him  to  his  true  life  in  the 
spirit;  it  draws  him  away  from  the  temporal  to 
the  eternal,  and  is  the  abiding  type  of  the  life  of 
heaven. 

This  chapter  cannot  be  better  concluded  than 
by  quoting  the  quaint  old  lines  of  Henry  Vaughan, 
entitled,  "Son-dayes:" 

*  Goethe. 


94  'I^HE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

"  Bright  shadows  of  true  rest !  some  shoots  of  bhss ; 
Heaven  once  a  week; 
The  next  world's  gladness  prepossessed  in  this; 

A  day  to  seek 
Eternity  in  time ;  the  steps  by  which 

We  climb  above  all  ages ;  lamps  that  light 
Man  through  his  heap  of  dark  days ;  and  the  rich 
And  full  redemption  of  the  whole  week's  flight ; 

"The  milky  way  chalked  out  with  suns;  a  clew 

That  guides  through  erring  hours ;  and  in  full  story 
A  taste  of  heaven  on  earth ;  the  pledge  and  cue 
Of  a  full  feast;  and  the  out-courts  of  glory." 


THE   PRIMITIVE   SABBATH.  95 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   PRIMITIVE   SABBATH. 

"  Inquire,  I  pray  thee,  of  the  former  age,  and  prepare  thy- 
self to  the  search  of  their  fathers  (for  we  are  but  of  yester- 
day, and  know  nothing,  because  our  days  upon  earth  are  a 
shadow) :  shall  not  they  teach  thee,  and  tell  thee,  and  utter 
words  out  of  their  heart  ?"  job  8 : 8-10. 

If  the  Sabbath,  as  has  been  claimed  thus  far 
in  this  argument,  was  instituted  for  spiritual  rea- 
sons at  the  creation  of  man,  and  if,  furthermore, 
it  was  ordained  because  it  was  vitally  related  to 
the  whole  life  of  man,  physical,  social,  and  reli- 
gious, we  should  expect  to  find  some  trace  of  it  in 
the  early  history  of  the  world.  The  earliest  world, 
indeed,  is  shut  off  from  our  search  by  that  great 
deluge  which  swept  away  at  once  its  monuments 
and  inhabitants.  The  ages  immediately  follow- 
ing have  left  but  the  scantiest  remains  of  their 
customs  and  history.  The  science  of  prehistoric 
archseology  is  in  its  infancy.  Very  numerous  or 
very  definite  proofs  are  impossible  in  the  very  na- 
ture of  the  case,  but  such  as  we  have  are  thereby 
given  the  greater  weight.  If  of  our  limited  knowl- 
edge of  those  years  the  Sabbath  forms  a  not  unim- 
portant part,  can  we  not  claim  that  the  institution 

Abiding  Sabbath.  7 


g6  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

must  have  been  of  some  importance  to  so  set  its 
mark  even  on  these  meagre  records  ?  and  may  we 
not  expect  that  further  light  will  only  increase 
the  evidence  of  its  early  existence  and  acknowl- 
edged obligation  ? 

There  is  indeed  no  Scriptural  reference  to  Sab- 
bath observance  among  the  antediluvians.  Yet 
it  may  fairly  be  argued  that  the  existence  of  reli- 
gious worship  among  them  implies  stated  seasons 
for  its  observance,  and  that  the  longevity  of  the 
patriarchs  can  hardly  be  accounted  for  if  they  vio- 
lated the  important  sanitary  law  of  rest.  We 
ought  not  to  be  surprised  at  this  lack  of  mention 
of  the  Sabbath  from  Adam  to  the  ^ivino:  of  the 
manna.  The  story  of  that  period  fills  but  a  few 
pages  in  the  Bible.  Nearly  half  of  those  are 
given  to  the  account  of  the  bondage  in  Egypt, 
during  which,  almost  certainly,  the  observance 
of  the  day  must  have  ceased.  The  books  of  the 
Bible  from  Joshua  to  the  First  Book  of  Kings  in- 
clusive fill  nearly  twice  as  much  space,  and  they 
contain  no  record  of  a  Sabbath,  although  coming 
after  the  time  of  Moses.  There  are  histories  of 
Christian  doctrine  filling  volumes  and  thousands 
of  pages  which  do  not  so  much  as  mention  the 
Lord's  day  among  the  means  of  grace ;  yet  the 
conclusion  that  it,  consequently,  had  not  existed 
would  be  evidently  false.     The  first  pages  of  the 


THE   PRIMITIVE   SABBATH.  97 

Bible  furnish  only  a  broad  historic  outline  of  the 
main  features  in  that  preparation  for  redemption 
which  God  was  making  among  the  nations  of 
men.  No  argument  whatever  can  be  drawn  from 
their  silence  on  the  subject  of  the  Sabbath. 

Yet  we  can  find  in  the  Bible  circumstantial 
evidence  for  the  early  existence  of  the  Sabbath. 
The  cycle  of  the  week  seems  to  have  been  in  use 
from  the  earliest  asfes.  Three  times  in  the  ac- 
count  of  the  Flood  is  the  period  of  seven  days 
mentioned.  The  continuance  of  mourning  for 
seven  days  is  mentioned  in  the  case  of  Joseph  at 
the  death  of  Jacob  his  father,  Gen.  50  :  10,  and  in 
the  instance  where  the  friends  of  Job  express  their 
sympathy  with  him.  Job  2  :  13.  The  *'week'' 
is  also  named  as  the  length  of  the  season  of  nup- 
tial rejoicing  in  the  marriage  of  Jacob  to  the 
daughters  of  Laban.  Gen.  29:27.  There  is  every 
warrant  for  the  assertion  of  La  Place  that  *'the 
week  is  perhaps  the  most  ancient  and  incontesta- 
ble monument  of  human  knowledge.  "* 

Whether  or  not  we  regard  the  week  as  an 
abiding  symbol  of  the  creative  process,  or  whether 
we  attempt  to  trace  in  it  a  reference  to  the  month, 
and  look  upon  it  as  an  attempt  to  roughly  mark 
out  the  lunar  phases  we  now  call  quarters,  we 
still  must  connect  in  thought  the  seven  days  of 
*  La  Place,  "  CEuvres,"  VI.  i,  3.    Paris,  1846. 


98  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  with  the  other  similar 
periods  in  the  Pentateuch.  Let  the  existence  of 
the  week  and  of  religious  worship  be  granted,  and 
the  conclusion  is  almost  irresistible  that  a  stated 
day  of  the  one  would  furnish  the  natural  time  for 
the  celebration  of  the  other,  especially  when  that 
had  been  revealed  in  the  beginning  as  the  right 
portion  of  time  to  be  so  employed.    This  argument 

^  from  inference  is  perhaps  as  strong  as  anything 
could  be  short  of  direct  evidence  and  positive 

♦  statement. 

But  the  weight  of  the  case  need  not  be  suf- 
fered to  rest  on  circumstantial  evidence  alone. 
Ancient  documents  have  come  to  light  which 
strongly  indicate  the  existence  of  Sabbatic  insti- 
tutions before  the  time  of  Moses.  Recent  discov- 
eries point  to  conclusions  totally  opposed  to  the 
critical  theories  and  ingenious  exegesis  of  that 
host  of  writers  who  have  denied  the  patriarchal 
Sabbath.  Not  least  in  importance  of  the  confir- 
mations of  Scripture  afforded  by  modern  explora- 
tion is  the  support  which  has  been  given  to  the 
institution  of  the  Sabbath. 

The  Assyrian  tablets  now  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum which  relate  to  the  Creation  and  the  Flood 
are  copies  of  much  older  Chaldsean  records,  and 
these  must  have  been  the  embodiment  of  tradi- 
tions still  more  ancient.      The  original  manu- 


THE    PRIMITIVE   SABBATH.  99 

scripts  may,  perhaps,  be  dated  at  least  two  hun- 
dred years  before  the  time  when  Abraham  left 
Chaldsea,  and  six  centuries  before  the  giving  of 
the  law  to  Moses,  and  they  w^ere  based  on  legendsX  , 
and  traditions  older  still  than  even  the  remote  pe-  V 
riod  named.  Assyriologists  pretty  well  agree  in 
this  approximation  of  dates.  * 

George  Smith  claimed  that  he  discovered  in 
the  fifth  tablet  of  the  series,  which  he  calls  ' '  The 
Creation  and  the  Fall,"  after  the  narrative  of  the 
appointment  of  the  luminaries  of  heaven  to  mark 
times  and  seasons,  a  declaration  that  the  seventh 
day  was  appointed  as  a  holy  day,  and  that  com- 
mand w^as  given  to  cease  from  all  w^ork  on  that 
day.f  If  his  translation  is  correct,  some  resem- 
blance to  the  Biblical  account  of  the  distinction 
of  the  seventh  day  may  be  traced  here,  and  with 
probability  referred  to  a  tradition  based  on  a  prim- 
itive revelation.  Other  eminent  Assyriologists,  it 
is  true,  do  not  accept  Smith's  translation  in  all  its 
particulars;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  any 
case  this  claimed  distinction  of  the  seventh  day 
appears  in  the  account  of  occurrences  which  the 
inspired  Scriptures  assign  to  iho:  fourth  day,  while 

*  Discussion  of  the  age  of  these  records  can  be  found  in 
G.  Smith's  "  Chaldaean  Account  of  Creation." 

t  "  Assyrian  Discoveries,"  12.  See  the  translation  of  this 
tablet  by  W.  Fox  Talbot  in  Appendix  A. 


lOO  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

its  connection  with  the  description  of  the  moon's 
phases  would  give  probability  to  the  opinion  that 
the  seventh  day  of  the  month  was  intended. 

In  1869,  however,  Mr.  Smith  discovered  in 
Nineveh  a  religious  calendar.  In  this  every 
month  is  divided  into  four  weeks  of  seven 
days  each,  and  every  seventh  day  is  marked  by 
prohibitions  of  work.  Rev.  A.  H.  Sayce, 
who  has  translated  a  part  of  this  calendar,  says 
of  it, 

**The  chief  interest  attaching  to  it  is  due  to 
the  fact  that  it  bears  evidence  of  a  seventh-day 
Sabbath,  on  which  certain  works  were  forbidden 
to  be  done  among  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians. 
It  will  be  observed  that  many  of  the  regulations 
are  closely  analogous  to  the  Sabbatical  injunc- 
tions of  the  Levitical  law  and  the  practice  of  the 
Rabbinical  Jews.  What  I  render  '  Sabbath '  is 
expressed  by  the  Accadian  words  which  literally 
signify  ''dies  nefastus^''  and  a  bilingual  syllabary 
makes  them  equivalent  to  the  Assyrian  ''ytnn  sa- 
hiini^''  or  'day  of  completion'  (of  labors).  The 
word  '  Sabbath '  was  not  unknown  to  the  Assyri- 
ans, and  occurs  under  the  form  '  Sabbatu.^  .... 
The  original  text  must  be  ascribed  to  some  period 
anterior  to  the  seventeenth  century  B.  C. " 

In  this  calendar  almost  identical  language  is 
used  in  giving  instructions  for  the  seventh,  four- 


THE   PRIMITIVE   SABBATH.  lOI 

teenth,  twenty-first,  and  each  succeeding  seventh 
day.  The  flesh  of  birds  or  cooked  fruits  could 
not  be  eaten,  nor  garments  be  changed,  nor  white 
robes  be  worn  on  that  day.  The  king  could  not 
ride  in  his  chariot,  law  could  not  be  made,  no 
military  commands  could  be  issued,  and  no  med- 
icine could  be  taken.*  Le  Normant,  indeed, 
thinks  that  these  days  were  days  of  ill-omen  and 
not  true  Sabbaths.  Yet  he  asserts  that  the  As- 
syrians '* recognized  the  Sabbath.  This  fact,"  he 
says,  "may  be  positively  inferred  from  the  pas- 
sage of  a  fragment  of  a  lexicon  of  Assyrian  syno- 
nyms, wherein  ^yiim  nuh  libbi^ '  '  day  of  repose  of 
the  heart,  day  of  joy,'  is  translated  ^  Sabbatuv^^ 
*  Sabbath.'  "f  The  testimony  of  this  great  Ori- 
entalist fully  confirms  the  translations  of  Mr. 
Sayce. 

The  traces  of  a  septenary  division  of  time  are 
widely  spread  throughout  the  nations  of  the  East. 
Its  existence  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia  is  fully  es- 
tablished. It  was  known  to  Saracens  from  time 
immemorial,  and  the  Mohammedan  observance 
of  Friday  seems  to  have  been  but  the  consecra- . 
tion  by  the  founder  of  Islam  of  an  older  usage. 
Its  early  existence  in  India  is  proved  by  linguistic 

*  "  Records  of  the  Past,"  VII.  157. 

t  See  Le  Normant,  "  Beginnings  of  History,"  249,  Ameri- 
can edition.  See  also  "  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  of  Wester;^ 
Asia,"  II.  PI.  32. 


I02  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

testimony  from  the  names  of  the  days.  There  is 
supposed  reference  to  the  week  in  Chinese  rec- 
ords which,  it  is  claimed,  date  back  to  the  great 
emperor  Fah  He,  3000  B.  C.  The  Romans  in- 
troduced it  from  Egypt  not  far  from  the  time  of 
the  Christian  era.*  It  seems  in  later  times  to 
have  borne  an  intimate  relation  to  the  pseudo- 
science  of  astrology,  whose  antiquity  is  well 
known,  the  names  of  the  week-days  being  for  the 
most  part  in  later  classic  and  modern  usage  de- 
rived from  that  one  of  the  planets  which  presided 
over  the  first  hour  of  each  day.  f  Even  at  so  great 
a  distance  from  its  first  institution  as  Guinea,  in 
Africa,  there  was  observed  the  week  and  a  week- 
ly day  of  rest.  By  the  account  of  Porphyry,  the 
Phoenicians  "set  apart  the  seventh  day  as  holy.'* 
Thus  throughout  the  Orient,  whence  have  radia- 
ted the  races  of  mankind,  we  find  existing  this 
oldest  symbol  of  the  creative  period  and  most  an- 
•cient  division  of  time.  It  strongly  supports  the 
theory  of  a  primitive  Sabbath. 

*  Dion  Cassius,  "  History  of  Rome,"  XXXVII.  18. 

t  As  this  consecration  of  the  hour  began  with  Saturn,  the 
farthest  removed  planet  from  the  earth  on  the  Ptolemaic 
theory,  Saturday  is  the  first  day  of  the  astrological  week.  If 
the  Babylonian  week  was  astrological,  which,  however,  is  im- 
probable, Moses  set  the  whole  week,  and  consequently  the 
Sabbath,  one  day  forward.  At  any  rate  this  proves  that  there 
is  no  definite  day  on  which  the  week  can  be  said  to  com- 
mence. 


the:  primitive  sabbath.  103 

This  widespread  diffusion  of  the  week  seems 
to  account  for  the  sacred  character  everywhere 
assigned  to  the  number  seven.  Let  it  once  be 
remembered  that  the  first  note  in  the  history  of 
this  number  in  any  significant  relation  is  in  con- 
nection with  the  creative  w^eek,  and  its  use  as  a 
number  with  peculiar  meanings  is  at  once  ac- 
counted for.  That  Greece  had  seven  wise  men, 
and  that  we  know  of  seven  wonders  of  the  world, 
that  the  perfect  number  of  ofierings  in  Moab, 
Greece,  and  Rome  was  seven,  that  more  than  one 
religion  has  dreamed  of  seven  heavens,  that  from 
Pythagoras  to  Schlegel*  men  have  earnestly  tried  ^ 
to  make  out  exactly  seven  planets — all  these 
facts,  and  countless  more  that  might  be  men-* 
tioned,  reveal  a  condition  of  human  thinkinof 
hard  to  be  explained  unless  we  believe  that  from 
the  beginning  seven  has  possessed  a  peculiar  sa- 
credness  from  marking  the  recurrence  of  a  sacred 
day  of  worship.  No  number  is  naturally  so  little 
likely  to  be  used.  The  digital  method  of  compu- 
ting by  fives  and  tens  is  that  which  is  most  likely 
to  suggest  itself  to  the  primitive  mind,  and  has  in 
fact  become  the  basis  of  nearly  all  systems  of  cal- 
culation. The  use  of  seven  is  thus  seen  to  be 
wholly  arbitrary,  and  must  first  have  arisen  from 
causes  wholly  outside  of  any  natural  reflection  on 
*  Schlegel,  "  Philosophy  of  Life."    Lecture  IV. 


104  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

the  properties  of  numbers.  It  is  easily  understood 
when  we  consider  its  sanctity  to  be  derived  from 
the  sanctity  of  the  seventh  day.* 

It  is,  indeed,  contended  by  some  that  the  num- 
ber seven  derived  its  importance  from  that  being 
the  number  of  the  planets  known.  The  fact  is 
precisely  the  reverse.  Because  of  the  symboli- 
cal and  sacred  character  ascribed  to  the  number 
seven  the  ancients  attempted  to  make  out  exactly 
seven  planets.  This  they  were  able  to  do  only 
by  adding  the  sun  and  moon  to  the  five  planets 
then  known,  and  thus  they  gave  artificially  a  ba- 
sis to  the  hebdomadal  conception  of  the  heavenly 
bodies.  * '  The  sacred  character  of  the  number 
seven  .  .  .  dates  back  to  the  remotest  antiquity 
among  the  Chaldaeo-Babylonians  and  is  greatly 
anterior  to"  the  planetary  week.f  Lepsius  has 
also  disproved  the  ancient  existence  of  the  plane- 

*  Bahr,  in  his  "  Symbolism  of  the  Mosaic  Worship,"  ad- 
vances the  theory  that  seven  is  made  up  of  the  four,  the  sig- 
nature of  the  world,  and  three,  the  number  which  signifies 
God,  and  therefore  expresses  everywhere  the  relation  of  God 
to  the  world ;  it  is  the  covenant  number.  This  can  hardly  be 
made  out.  It  seems  more  probable  that  seven  is  the  exact 
number  of  the  time-worlds  or  "  seons,"  of  which  the  last  is 
the  life  of  man  and  the  Sabbath  of  God.  From  this  fact  it 
comes  to  be  the  number  of  completion.  On  its  general  sig- 
nification see  Herzog, "  Realencyclopadie."  The  theory  which  <, 
connects  seven  with  the  creation  is  the  only  one  which  has 
any  show  of  plausibility. 

t  Le  Normant,  "  Beginnings  of  History,"  249. 


THE   PRIMITIVE  SABBATH.  IO5 

tary  week  in  Egypt,*  and  Tischendorf  affirms 
that  there  is  complete  absence,  not  only  in  the 
Old  or  New  Testament,  but  also  in  the  Talmud, 
of  any  traces  of  the  names  of  week-days  being  ta- 
ken from  the  planets,  f 

It  is  probable  that  the  week  is  to  be  traced  in 
an  altered  form  in  the  decades  of  ancient  Egypt 
and  of  Greece,  and  in  the  nundines  of  Rome. 
The  attempt  to  substitute  a  decade  for  the  week 
in  the  French  calendar  during  the  Revolution 
proves  the  possibility  of  such  corruptions.  In 
their  Oriental  home  the  future  Europeans  must 
have  observed  the  week,  if  the  testimony  from' 
Hindoo  sources  can  be  trusted.  The  modifica- 
tions which  come  to  language,  customs,  and  wor- 
ship are  well  known  and  need  no  proof.  When 
untaught  by  revelation  and  undirected  by  a  di- 
vine code,  the  human  heart  is  but  too  prone  to 
substitute  its  plans  and  theories  for  the  enact- 
ments of  Deity.  The  periods  of  ten  days  used  by 
Egyptians  and  Greeks,  of  eight  days  by  the  Ro- 
mans, of  five  days  by  the  Aztecs,  and  of  nine  days 
as  found  among  the  Peruvians,  bear  enough  re- 
semblance to  the  institution  of  the  week  to  justify 
the  claim  of  a  common  origin.  Furthermore,  is 
it  too  much  to  suggest  that  all  heathen  holidays 

*  Lepsius,  "  Chronologic  der  Aeg.,"  I.  131. 
t  Quoted  in  Humboldt's  "  Cosmos." 


I06  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

are  but  transformations  of  the  primitive  Sabbatic 
institution?  As  those  heavenly  images  of  the 
Creator's  brightness,  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars, 
began  to  receive  the  homage  due  to  him  alone, 
his  day  of  holy  worship  was  superseded  by  those 
monthly,  quarterly,  and  annual  festivals  which 
celebrated  the  seasons  of  the  year  and  the  phases 
of  the  heavenly  bodies.  Whether  this  be  so  or 
not,  the  existence  of  these  festivals  is  sufficient 
proof  of  the  need  everywhere  recognised  by  man 
of  stated  seasons  for  religious  exercise,  a  need  in 
no  way  so  well  satisfied  as  by  the  weekly  recur- 
rence of  the  Sabbath. 

That  the  Sabbath  existed  in  patriarchal  days 
appears  to  be  sufficiently  proved.  Some  shadow 
of  the  presence  of  this  primitive  institution  seems 
to  have  remained  with  all  the  nations.  Its  "line 
is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth."  Only  in  the 
line  of  a  written  revelation,  however,  has  it  re- 
tained any  measure  of  purity  and  asserted  its  full 
power.  The  abiding  Sabbath  which  is  the  wit- 
ness of  eternity  in  time  has  fully  manifested  itself 
only  along  that  line  of  contact  of  God  and  the 
world  which  is  the  history  of  redemption.  In 
this  more  perfect  light  of  revelation  let  us  trace  it 
through  the  Sabbath  of  the  law  to  its  more  glori- 
ous embodiment  in  the  Sabbath  of  redemption, 
and  onward  to  the  Sabbath  of  eternity. 


PART    II. 

.ABBATH  0F  THE   bAW. 


THE 

SABBATH  OF  THE  LAW. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ITS   INSTITUTION. 
"  He  bare  them,  and  carried  them  all  the  days  of  old." 

ISAIAH  63:9. 

Israel  left  Egypt  in  search  of  a  Sabbath. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  captive  people 
knew  no  day  of  rest  in  the  house  of  bondage. 
That  unreasoning  selfishness  which  demanded 
**  bricks  without  straw"  could  not  have  tolerated 
anything  so  merciful.  Under  the  cruel  lash  of 
the  taskmaster  their  lives  went  on  in  ceaseless 
toil,  unrelieved  by  the  Sabbath  with  its  grateful 
repose  for  the  weary  frame  and  its  release  of  holy 
thoughts  for  the  imprisoned  soul.  Israel  went 
out  into  the  wilderness  to  seek  a  Sabbath,  for 
they  sought  rest  from  their  burdens  and  the  op- 
portunity of  worship;  and  these  tw^o  things,  rest 
and  w^orship,  make  up  the  idea  of  the  Sabbath. 
So  Pharaoh,  when  he  reproved  Moses  and  Aaron, 


no  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

said,  "  Ye  make  the  people  rest  (Sabbatize)  from 
their  burdens, ' '  Exod.  5  :  5,  evidently  implying 
that  he  considered  the  whole  movement  an  at- 
tempt to  gain  holidays  ;  and  the  request  of  Moses 
was  that  the  people  might  hold  a  sacred  feast  in 
the  wilderness. 

It  is  therefore  no  surprise  to  find  that  the  first 
institution  of  religion  given  to  the  emancipated 
nation  was  the  very  same  with  the  first  given  to 
man — a  day  for  the  renewal  of  physical  energies 
and  the  unfolding  of  spiritual  powers.  God  him- 
self provided  the  feast  in  the  wilderness  which 
marked  for  them  the  weekly  recurrence  of  the 
holy  day.  The  gift  of  manna,  without  doubt, 
furnished  the  occasion  for  the  institution  of  the 
Hebrew  Sabbath.  The  words  which  announce 
it  are  really  more  forcible  than  those  of  our  Eng- 
lish version:  "  Z^/  to-morrow  be  rest,  a  holy  Sab- 
bath to  the  Ivord."*  Exod.  16:23.  '^'^^  con- 
nection of  the  miraculous  supply  of  food  with  the 
seventh  day  was  certainly  calculated  to  strongly 
impress  the  Sabbath  upon  the  thoughts  and  ima- 
ginations of  the  people,  and  thus  was  laid  a  sure 
foundation  for  the  Sinaitic  legislation. 

The  Sabbath  thus  instituted  is  by  no  means 
in  every  respect  like  the  primal  rest-day  given  to 
man  in  Paradise.     Although  it  holds  in  itself  the 

*  See  Keil,  "  Commentary  on  the  Pentateuch,"  in  loco. 


ITS   INSTITUTION.  Ill 

full  Spiritual  content  of  that  ordinance  and  rests 
upon  that  as  its  reason,  3'et  it  has  come  to  embody 
a  new  significance  special  to  the  Hebrew  people 
as  the  elect  nation  of  Jehovah.  Consequently,  in 
that  review  of  the  law  in  the  "people's  book,'* 
Deuteronomy,  the  command  is  given  in  a  form 
which  appeals  to  Israel  as  the  nation  peculiarly 
under  the  guidance  of  Providence:  "Remember 
that  thou  wast  a  servant  in  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  that  the  I^ord  thy  God  brought  thee  out 
thence  through  a  mighty  hand  and  by  a  stretched- 
out  arm."  Dent.  5  :  15.  If  the  primal  Sabbath 
commemorates  the  Creation  and  honors  the  Cre- 
ator, the  Israelitish  Sabbath  testifies,  in  addition 
to  this,  to  the  providential  guidance  of  God's  peo- 
ple, and  glorifies  him  as  the  Ruler  and  Master  of 
human  history.  God  has  not  made  the  world  just 
to  sit  by  and  see  it  go,  but  himself  goes  forth 
every  morning  to  his  spiritual  tasks  of  control 
and  government  in  its  affairs.  He  is  not  simply 
watching  as  it  goes  sailing  on,  with  its  vast  cargo 
of  souls,  before  the  currents  and  breezes  of  fixed 
law,  but  bends  down  now  and  then  to  trim  a  spar 
and  adjust  a  sail.  No,  he  rather  wears  this  world  of 
ours  as  a  flower  on  his  bosom,  through  which  every 
moment  the  warm  flood  of  his  loving  care  is  felt 
in  every  petal,  thrilling  its  whole  life.  He  "who 
is  over  all,    God  blessed   for  ever,"   sometimes 


113  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

Stoops  from  the  starry  skies,  and  he,  the  great 
Artist,  retouches  the  picture  of  human  events 
until  they  glow  anew  with  a  harmonious  union 
of  liberty,  love,  and  light  reflected  from  the  Deity. 
It  is  to  God  as  providence  that  the  new  institution 
of  the  Sabbath  by  the  hand  of  Moses  witnesses, 
while  it  embodies  as  well  all  that  was  implied  in 
the  original  ordinance. 

The  Sabbath  is  henceforth  enriched  with  add- 
ed meanings.  It  not  only  points  back  to  the  be- 
ginning of  things  and  speaks  of  the  Power  that 
formed  heaven  and  earth,  but  it  testifies  to  some- 
thing present  and  abiding,  to  the  guiding  Hand 
of  strength  which  bore  and  carried  his  people  all 
the  days  of  old,  and  that  Presence  which  he  has 
pledged  to  all  who  trust  him:  ^'  I  will  never  leave 
you  nor  forsake  you.''  Josh.  1:5;  Heb.  13:5. 
When  in  the  house  of  bondage  his  people  toiled 
and  groaned  under  the  burdens  of  Egypt,  the  cry 
of  the  slave  pierced  his  listening  ear;  and  by 
mighty  miracles  he  delivered  them  and  through 
wondrous  ways  he  led  them  into  rest.  When  his 
fainting  people  famished  in  the  wilderness,  he 
who  ^' hears  the  wailing  seabird  on  the  hungry 
shore"  showered  bread  from  heaven  upon  them 
and  fed  them  with  angels'  food.  The  seventh 
day  is  newly  sacred  as  a  monument  to  the  superin- 
tendence and  constant  care  of  a  loving  Heavenly 


ITS   INSTITUTION.  II 3 

Father,  and  as  it  still  returns  the  trusting  heart 
is  assured  with  weekly  iteration  of  the  promise, 
**  All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that 
love  God,  to  them  who  are  the  called  according  to 
his  purpose."  Rom.  8  :  28.  Through  the  world's 
midnight  of  trouble  and  sin,  in  the  darkest  hour 
of  the  world's  despair,  the  Sabbath  still  keeps  its 
weekly  watch  and  beat,  and  cries  out  to  our  un- 
resting hearts,  *'God  reigns,  and  all  is  well!'* 


114  .  the;  abiding  sabbath. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   FOURTH   COMMANDMENT. 

"  The  Decalogue,  that  soHtary  autograph  of  the  Eternal, 
is  not  a  mistake."  wendling. 

"  For  the  permanency  of  the  Sabbath  we  argue  its  place 
in  the  Decalogue,  where  it  stands  enshrined  among  the  mo- 
ralities of  a  rectitude  that  is  immutable  and  everlasting." 

CHALMERS. 

The  Sabbath  under  its  three  forms  has  been 
connected  with  the  most  notable  event  of  each 
divine  dispensation.  In  the  primitive  age  it  re- 
ferred to  the  work  of  creation ;  the  Christian  Sab- 
bath commemorates  a  finished  redemption ;  and 
so  the  Mosaic  dispensation  embodied  it  in  that 
code  of  laws  which,  although  given  to  Israel,  has 
a  moral  significance  to  all  mankind.  The  giving^ 
of  the  law  at  Sinai  is  the  loftiest  landmark  in  the 
history  of  Israel.  It  is  the  beginning  of  their  civil 
and  religious  polity.  From  that  moment  Israel 
became  the  nation  of  Jehovah,  the  nation  of  the 
law,  the  leader  among  the  nations  of  the  earth 
in  the  search  after  a  positive  righteousness.  That 
the  Sabbath  is  a  part  of  that  code  has  therefore  a 
meaning  not  for  the  Hebrew  alone,  but  for  the 
whole  race  of  mankind. 


the:  fourth  commandment.  115 

Everywhere  in  the  sacred  writings  of  the  He- 
brews they  are  reminded  that  they  are  the  people 
peculiarly  guided  by  Providence.  Historian, 
Psalmist,  and  prophet  never  tire  in  recounting 
the  marvellous  interpositions  of  Jehovah  in  be- 
half of  his  chosen  people.  And  this  thought  is 
the  keynote  to  the  Decalogue.  ' '  I  am  the  Lord 
thy  God,  which  have  brought  thee  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage,"  Exod. 
20  :  2,  is  the  introduction  to  the  law.  When  there- 
fore the  Sabbath  is  introduced  into  the  Decalogue, 
while  its  old  significance  as  a  testimony  of  crea- 
tion is  not  lost,  but  especially  recalled,  it  becomes, 
besides,  a  monument  of  the  divine  providence 
whose  particular  manifestations  Israel,  among  the 
the  nations,  has  most  largely  experienced.  The 
Sabbath  of  the  law  is  the  Sabbath  of  Providence. 

The  declaration  on  Sinai  is  perhaps  the  strong- 
est attestation  which  the  Sabbatic  ordinance  has 
received.  It  is  henceforth  based  upon  an  express 
command  of  God  himself,  is  given  in  circumstan- 
ces of  the  most  impressive  solemnity,  and  has 
received  the  awful  sanction  of  embodiment  in 
the  moral  law,  against  which  "the  soul  that  sin- 
neth,  it  shall  die."  Eezek.  18  :  4.  God  has  spo- 
ken, and  his  creatures  must  obey  or  perish. 

I.  The  obligation  of  the  Sabbath  i:  enforced  by 
the  obligation  of  the  e^itire  Decalogue. 


Il6  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

We  commonly  speak  of  the  Decalogue  as  the 
**Ten  Commandments."  A  more  precise  ren- 
dering of  the  Hebrew  terms  would  be  the  ^ '  Ten 
Words,"  Exod.  34:28,  margin;  Deut.  4:13;  10:2, 
4,  margin,  an  exact  equivalent  of  which  we  have, 
taken  from  the  Greek,  in  the  word  "Decalogue." 
These  statutes  are  therefore  not  simply  commands 
or  precepts  of  God,  for  God  may  give  command- 
ments which  have  only  a  transient  and  local  ef- 
fect; they  are  in  a  distinctive  sense  the  word  of 
God,  an  essential  part  of  that  word  which  "abi- 
deth."  In  the  Decalogue  we  get  a  glimpse  of 
that  inner  movement  of  the  divine  will  which  is 
the  permanent  foundation  for  all  temporary  ordi- 
nances. It  is  not  contended  that  this  use  of  lan- 
guage is  rigidly  uniform,  but  only  that  by  the 
phrase,  *'The  Ten  Words,"  as  well  as  in  the 
general  scope  of  Hebrew  legislation,  the  moral 
law  is  fully  distinguished  from  the  civil  and  cere- 
monial law.  The  first  is  an  abiding  statement  of 
the  divine  will;  the  last  consists  of  transient  ordi- 
nances having  but  a  temporary  and  local  meaning 
and  force.  The  Decalogue  is  also  called  the  ' '  Tes- 
timony," Exod.  25  :  16  and  in  many  other  places, 
that  is,  the  witness  of  the  divine  will;  also  "the 
words  of  the  covenant,"  Exod.  34  :  28,  and  "his 
(i.  e.,  Jehovah's)  covenant,"  Deut.  4:13^  ^^pon 
obedience  to  which  his  favor  was  in  a  special 


THE   FOURTH   COMMANDMENT.  llj 

manner  conditioned.     The  names  given  to  this 
code  declare  its  unchanging  moral  authority. 

The  manner  in  which  this  law  was  given  at- 
tests its  special  sanctity  and  high  authority.  Be- 
fore its  announcement  the  people  of  Israel  by 
solemn  rites  sanctified  themselves,  while  the  holy 
mountain  was  girded  with  the  death-line  which 
no  mortal  could  pass  and  live.  When  the  ap- 
pointed day  came,  to  the  sublime  accompaniment 
of  pealing  thunders  and  flashing  lightnings,  the 
loud  shrilling  of  angel-blown  trumpets,  the  smo- 
king mountain,  and  the  quaking  earth,  from  the 
lips  of  Jehovah  himself  sounded  forth  "with  a 
great  voice'*  the  awful  sentences  of  this  divine 
law  to  which  in  the  same  way  "he  added  no 
more.''  Deut.  5  :  22.  Not  by  the  mouth  of  an- 
gel or  prophet  came  this  sublimest  code  of  morals, 
but  the  words  were  formed  in  air  by  the  power  of 
the  Eternal  himself.  And  when  it  was  to  be  re- 
corded, no  human  scribe  took  down  the  sacred 
utterances;  they  were  engraved  by  no  angel  hand, 
but  with  his  own  finger  he  inscribed  on  tables  of 
stone,  whose  preparation,  in  the  first  instance, 
was  "the  work  of  God,"  the  words  of  his  will. 
Exod.  31  :  18;  32  :  16;  34  :  i,  4,  28.  The  law  de- 
clared by  his  own  mouth  and  indited  by  his  own 
hand  was  finally  placed  in  the  ark  of  the  cove- 
nant, underneath  the  mercy-seat,  w^here  sprinkled 


Il8  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

blood  might  atone  for  its  violation;  between  tlie 
cherubim,  symbols  perhaps  of  the  divine  watch 
and  guard,  and  beneath  the  flaming  manifesta- 
tion of  the  very  presence  of  the  Almighty,  the 
glory  of  the  Shekinah;  circumstances  signifying 
for  ever  the  divine  source  of  this  law  and  the  di- 
vine solicitude  that  it  should  be  obeyed.  This 
superior  solemnity  and  majesty  of  announcement 
and  conservation  distinguish  the  Decalogue  above 
all  other  laws  given  to  man,  and  separate  it 
widely  from  the  civil  polity  and  ritual  afterwards 
given  by  the  hand  of  Moses.  These  latter  are 
written  by  no  almighty  finger  and  spoken  to  the 
people  by  no  divine  voice.  For  these  it  is  suffi- 
cient that  Moses  hear  and  record  them. 

Of  the  law  thus  impressively  given  the  Fourth 
Commandment  forms  a  part.  Amid  the  same 
cloud  of  glory,  the  same  thunders  and  lightnings, 
uttered  by  the  same  dread  voice  of  the  Infinite 
One,  and  graven  by  his  finger,  came  forth  these 
words  as  well:  "Remember  the  Sabbath  day,  to 
keep  it  holy.'^  It  is  impossible,  in  view  of  these 
facts,  to  class  the  Sabbath  with  the  ceremonial 
institutions  of  Israel.  By  the  sacred  seal  of  the 
divine  lip  and  finger  it  has  been  raised  far  above 
those  perishing  rites.  In  other  words,  it  belongs 
to  that  moral  law  which  Paul  calls  "holy  and 
just  and  good,"  Rom.  7  :i2,  and  not  that  ritual 


THE   FOURTH   COMMANDMENT.  1 19 

law  of  which  Peter  declares  ''neither  our  fathers 
nor  we  were  able  to  bear"  it.     Acts  15  :  10. 

2.  TJie  Sabbath  caiinot  be  excepted  from  the  moj'al 
obligation  of  the  whole  Decalogue. 

Nothing  can  be  found  in  the  form  of  words  in 
w^hich  the  Fourth  Commandment  is  expressed 
which  indicates  that  it  is  less  universal  in  its  ob- 
ligation or  less  absolute  in  its  authority  than  the 
other  nine  with  which  it  is  associated.  By  uni- 
versal admission  all  the  rest  are  perpetual  and 
universal  in  their  obligation.  But  it  is  sometimes 
claimed  that  this  is  simply  a  Mosaic  institute,  and 
therefore  of  transient  force;  that  this  has  not,  like 
the  others,  an  inward  reason  which  appeals  to  the 
conscience;  that  it  is,  in  short,  not  a  moral  but  a 
positive  precept. 

It  is  evident  that  the  burden  of  proof  on  this 
point  rests  upon  those  who  oppose  the  Sabbath. 
The  proof  which  would  exclude  this  comm.and- 
ment  from  the  throne  of  moral  authority  on  which 
the  others  are  seated  should  amount  to  demonstra- 
tion. The  illusory  character  of  the  distinction 
between  positive  and  moral  precepts  has  already 
been  shown.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  prove  that 
the  natural  conscience  of  man  will  sustain  any 
one  of  the  nine  others  with  greater  force  than  the 
one  in  dispute.  Even  Sparta,  with  her  generally 
high  moral  ideal,  consecrated  theft  and  falsehood 


I20  THE  ABIDING   SABBATH. 

as  a  necessary  step  in  the  creation  of  heroic  char- 
acter. The  race  has  come  gradually  to  recognize 
the  necessary  grounds  on  which  most  of  the  moral 
virtues  rest.  Some  day,  doubtless,  the  grounds  of 
the  Sabbath  will  be  seen  to  be  quite  as  necessary 
and  universal  as  those  of  honesty  and  chastity. 
The  distinction  cannot  be  maintained  between 
this  commandment  and  the  remainder  of  the  Dec- 
alogue. The  prohibition  of  image- worship  is  not 
deemed  essential  by  either  Roman  or  Greek  Chris- 
tianity, but  the  more  spiritual  mind  of  Protestant- 
ism can  see  that  this  law  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  guard  a  truly  spiritual  conception  of  Deity. 
So,  many  excellent  Christians  have  failed  to  dis- 
cern the  moral  necessity  of  the  Sabbath.  Clearer 
insight  will  reveal  that  all  the  laws  of  the  first 
table  are  guarded  by  this  institution,  as  all  in  the 
second  table  are  enforced  by  the  tenth,  ''Thou 
shalt  not  covet." 

It  may  be  freely  admitted  that  the  Decalogue, 
in  the  form  in  which  it  is  stated,  contains  tran- 
sient elements.  These,  however,  are  easily  sepa- 
rable. For  example,  the  promise  attached  to  the 
requirement  of  filial  reverence,  "that  thy  days 
may  be  long  upon  the  land  which  the  I^ord  thy 
God  giveth  thee,"  has  a  very  evident  reference  to 
Israel  alone,  and  is  a  promise  of  national  perpe- 
tuity in  possession  of  the  promised  land.     Even 


THE   FOURTH   COMMANDMENT.  121 

this  element  is  not  entirely  of  limited  application, 
however,  for  Paul  quotes  the  commandment,  in 
his  letter  to  the  Christians  of  Bphesus,  Eph.  6:2, 
as  ''the  first .  .  .  with  promise,"  evidently  under- 
standing the  covenant  of  long  life  to  have  a  wider 
scope  than  simply  the  Hebrew  nationality.  And 
it  is  clear  that  nothing  can  be  imagined  which 
could  give  more  enduring  stability  to  civil  insti- 
tutions than  that  law-abiding  character  which  is 
based  on  respect  for  superiors  and  obedience  to 
their  commands.  This  serves  to  illustrate  how 
we  may  regard  the  temporal  element  in  the  law 
of  the  Sabbath.  It  does  not  bind  us  to  the  pre- 
cise day,  but  to  the  seventh  of  our  time.  And 
this  accidental  and  transient  element  of  the  law, 
w^hich  can  be  traced  in  the  other  commandments 
as  well,  and  which  grows  out  of  the  fact  that,  al- 
though a  law  for  all  mankind,  it  was  given  to  a 
particular  people,  does  not  affect  that  element,  in 
this  as  in  all  the  other  commandments,  which  is 
universal  and  abiding  in  its  meaning. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  essence  of  the  Sab- 
bath law  which  marks  it  as  more  adapted  to  Is- 
rael than  to  the  remainder  of  mankind.  On  one 
day  in  seven  it  requires  abstinence  from  the  ser- 
vile work  ("labor"),  the  ordinary  worldly  busi- 
ness and  occupation  ("work"),  of  the  other  six 
days.      It  prescribes  periodic  rest  from  periodic 


12Z  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

labor.  To  every  race  and  generation  of  men  has 
come  the  sentence  pronounced  on  the  first  man, 
*'  In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread.'* 
Gen.  3:19.  The  requirement  of  rest  is  not  a  He- 
brew but  a  human  necessity.  The  Sabbath  gift 
of  repose  comes  not  with  more  grateful  benedic- 
tion to  the  toiling  children  of  Abraham  and  their 
cattle  than  to  all  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Adam 
and  the  weary  beasts  that  serve  them.  If  the 
wandering  tribes  in  the  wilderness,  gathering 
with  every  morning  their  unfailing  harvests  of 
the  bread  of  heaven,  need  a  seventh  day  for  rest, 
much  more  do  the  striving  multitudes  of  all  times 
and  climes,  who  after  long  months  of  toil  wrest 
their  needful  food  from  half-reluctant  nature,  re- 
quire its  refreshment  and  restoring  power. 

Nor  is  there  anything  local  or  temporary  in 
the  positive  factor  of  the  Sabbatic  idea — wor- 
ship. All  men,  as  \vell  as  Israelites,  are  made 
in  the  image  of  God;  all  have  spiritual  natures 
requiring  opportunities  for  spiritual  activity;  all 
need  this  open  gate  in  time  which  leads  out  into 
eternity.  Not  in  Jerusalem  alone  is  the  sole  altar 
of  human  worship.  Religion  is  a  universal  in- 
stitution, and  the  day  of  religious  worship  is  a 
universal  need.  Its  soul-refreshing  power  is  de- 
manded by  the  nature  of  Gentile  as  well  as  Jew; 
it  has  a  value  to  the  last  ages  as  w^ell  as  to  the  in- 


the:  fourth  commandment.         123 

fancy  of  the  world.  The  reasons  of  the  Fourth 
Commandment,  not  less  than  those  of  the  other 
nine,  are  such  as  apply  with  equal  force  to  all  races 
of  the  earth  and  all  ages  of  the  world's  history. 

3.  TJie  pei'petinty  of  the  Decalogue  involves  the 
peipetidty  of  the  Sabbath. 

The  moral  authority  of  the  Decalogue  did  not 
begin  with  its  announcement  on  Sinai.  Its  pre- 
cepts had  been  known  and  practised  through  all 
the  patriarchal  ages.  Murder  was  condemned 
in  Cain,  and  dishonor  of  parents  in  Ham.  To 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  had  come  the  knowl- 
edge of  one  God,  and  the  last  had  exhorted  his 
children  against  image  -  worship.  Gen.  35:2. 
Theft,  falsehood,  and  adultery  are  all  denounced 
by  the  record  of  pre-Mosaic  times.  As  a  decla- 
ration of  the  eternal  and  unchanging  moral 
law  its  binding  force  did  not  begin  with  its  an- 
nouncement at  Horeb,  but  dated  from  the  be- 
ginning of  things,  and  for  the  same  reason  will 
endure  until  the  consummation  of  all  things. 
Nor  was  it  given  to  Israel  alone.  The  Gentiles 
^'show  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their 
hearts."     Rom.  2:14,  15. 

Jesus  Christ  has  confirmed  its  obligation:  *'If 
thou  wilt  enter  into  life,  keep  the  command- 
ments." Matt.  19:17.  His  great  generalization 
of  the  whole  law  into  the  double  duty  of  love  to 


124  '^HK   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

God  and  man  is  a  further  confirmation  of  the 
persistence  of  its  ethical  force.  James  writes: 
*' Whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet 
offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all.  For  he 
that  said.  Do  not  commit  adultery,  said  also.  Do 
not  kill.  Now  if  thou  commit  no  adultery,  yet  if 
thou  kill,  thou  art  become  a  transgressor  of  the 
law."  James  2:10,  ii.  It  is  impossible  to  sup- 
pose that  the  apostle  has  not  in  mind  the  whole 
Decalogue,  and  that  he  does  not  equally  affirm 
the  profaner  of  the  Sabbath  to  be  a  violator  of 
the  whole  law.  In  a  statement  of  such  gravity 
he  must  have  specified  the  exception  if  any  exist- 
ed. It  is  worthy  of  our  notice  that  he  bases  the 
sanctity  of  each  command  on  the  fact  that  each 
was  spoken  by  one  God.  But  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath  was  as  surely  uttered  by  the  voice  of  Je- 
hovah as  any  other  precept  of  the  ten.  If  the 
*'Ten  Words"  of  Sinai  live  to-day,  imposing  an 
tmrelaxed  obligation  upon  all  mankind,  as  is  tes- 
tified both  by  the  nature  of  the  legislation  and  by 
the  authority  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles,*  the  Sab- 
bath shares  their  perpetuity,  both  of  existence 
and  obligation. 

4.    The  phraseology  of  the  Fourth  Comma7tdment 
is  such  as  to  imply  universality  and  perpetuity, 

' '  Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy. 

*  This  point  will  be  more  fully  discussed  in  Part  Third. 


the:  fourth  commandment.         125 

Six  days  shalt  thou  labor,  and  do  all  thy  work: 
but  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  lyord 
thy  God:  in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou, 
.  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter,  thy  man-servant, 
nor  thy  maid-servant,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy 
stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates:  for  in  six  days 
the  Ivord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and 
all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day: 
wherefore  the  IvOrd  blessed  the  Sabbath  day,  and 
hallowed  it."     Exod.  20:8-11. 

The  injunction  to  "remember"  may  natural- 
ly be  interpreted  as  indicating  the  existence  of  a 
pre-Mosaic  Sabbath.  The  opinion  that  it  has 
such  a  reference  is  supported  by  the  reason  cited 
at  the  end  of  the  commandment,  the  creative  rest 
of  the  Almighty  at  the  beginning.  Much  inge- 
nuity has  been  expended  to  break  down  the  force 
of  this  word  ' '  remember, ' '  but  the  recent  discov- 
ery of  monumental  indications  of  the  actual  ex- 
istence of  Sabbatic  institutions  before  Moses  tends 
to  confirm  its  force.  The  word  takes  in,  in  its 
sweep,  all  time,  past  and  to  come;  for  while  the 
act  of  remembrance  carries  the  thought  backward 
to  the  dawn  of -history,  the  command  to  remem- 
ber reaches  forward  to  the  coming  sunset  of  the 
world,  when  Time's  brief  day  shall  fade  into  the 
da^2;ling  radiance .  of  eternity.  It  indicates  a 
primitive  and  abiding  Sabbath. 


126  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

The  reason  of  the  command  recalls  the  ordi- 
nance of  creation.  It  is  very  significant  that  in 
the  rehearsal  of  the  law  in  Deuteronomy,  a  recital 
especially  addressed  to  Israel,  the  law  of  the  Sab- 
bath is  based  on  the  rest  given  to  the  people  from 
the  bondage  of  Egypt.  Deut.  5:15.  But  in  the 
law  spoken  by  the  mouth  of  God  himself  and 
written  by  his  own  finger,  the  transcript  of  his 
will,  the  reasons  assigned  for  the  institution  of 
the  Sabbath  are  such  as  appeal  not  to  Israel 
alone,  but  to  man  as  man.  The  Sabbath  recalls 
a  fact  of  universal  interest,  the  creation  of  the 
world,  and  is  based  on  a  process  in  the  nature  of 
God,  who  in  some  ineffable  way  * '  rested  on  the 
seventh  day."  The  ideas  connected  with  the 
Sabbath  in  the  Fourth  Commandment  are  thus 
of  the  most  permanent  and  universal  meaning. 
The  institution  in  the  light  of  the  reasons  as- 
signed is  as  wide  as  the  creation  and  as  eternal  as 
the  Creator. 

Instituted  at  the  creation  by  the  example  of 
the  Creator,  its  obligation  extends  to  every  crea- 
ture. It  is  inconceivable,  on  any  theory  of  in- 
spiration, that  any  narrower  interpretation  is  to 
be  given  to  this  command.  If  language  is  to 
have  any  meaning  at  all,  the  Sabbath  of  the 
Fourth  Commandment  is  not  simply  an  Israeli- 
tish,  but  a  human  institution.     As  it  answers  a 


the:  fourth  commandment.  127 

universal  need,  so  is  it  enforced  by  a  universal 
reason,  being  supported  by  the  only  state  of  facts 
that  could  create  a  perpetual  institute  the  law  of 
the  beginning. 

It  should  be  noted  in  this  connection  that  the 
creative  Sabbath  is  recalled  also  in  the  two  ele- 
ments which  entered  into  its  being;  it  is  blessed 
to  man  by  rest  and  is  sanctified  to  God  by  wor- 
ship. ^'Keep  it  holy,"  and,  "Do  no  work," 
correspond  to  the  "sanctified"  and  "blessed" 
which  we  meet  in  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis. 
The  Sabbath  of  the  law  incloses  thus  the  full 
spiritual  intent  of  the  Sabbath  of  creation.  Like 
that,  it  is  a  divine-human  institution. 

5.  The  Fourth  Cominajidmeiit  contains  elements 
of  abiding  force  which  belong  to  no  other. 

The  reference  to  the  creative  rest  of  God  is 
more  than  a  reason;  that  alone  would  be  trivial; 
it  is  a  teaching.  It  reminds  Israel  of  an  Kdenic  U 
Sabbath  lost  by  the  fall;  it  promises  an  eternal 
rest  in  the  consummation  of  the  world's  history. 
It  is  thus  the  most  directly  evangelical  element 
in  the  Decalogue,  and  as  such  is  most  appropriate- 
ly placed  between  those  commands  which  state 
our  duty  to  God  and  those  which  state  our  duty 
to  man.  To  the  Hebrew  nation  it  remained  an  v 
unfulfilled  type;  they  entered  not  into  rest  be- 
cause of  their  unbelief.     Heb.  4:6.    Joshua  did 

Abldins  Sabbath.  Q 


128  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

not  give  them  rest,  for  God  has  ' '  spoken  of  an- 
other day. "  "  There  is  an  abiding  Sabbath  for 
the  people  of  God,"  which  the  Sabbath  of  Israel 
prefigured.  Just  as  man  failed  to  retain  the  di- 
vine rest  in  Paradise,  but  lost  it  through  the  fall, 
so  did  Israel  fail  to  obtain  it;  one  generation  per- 
ished in  the  wilderness,  and  neither  those  who 
entered  into  the  promised  land  nor  their  descend- 
ants enjoyed  a  lasting  rest.  With  us  still  the 
type  lingers,  inclosing,  indeed,  more  of  the  sub- 
stance in  that  soul-rest  which  comes  by  faith 
in  Him  who  said,  "Come  unto  me,"  but  its  full 
realization  awaits  that  manifestation  of  the  sons 
of  God  when  travailing  creation  shall  again  shine 
in  Eden's  glory. 

These  considerations  cannot  be  treated  with 
too  much  gravity.  Long  should  pause  the  erring 
hand  of  man  before  it  dares  to  chip  away  with 
the  chisel  of  human  reasonings  one  single  word 
graven  on  the  enduring  tables  by  the  hand  of  the 
infinite  God.  What  is  proposed?  To  make  an 
erasure  in  a  heaven-born  code;  to  expunge  one 
article  from  the  recorded  will  of  the  Eternal  !  Is 
the  eternal  tablet  of  his  law  to  be  defaced  by  a 
creature's  hand?  He  who  proposes  such  an  act 
should  fortify  himself  by  reasons  as  holy  as  God 
and  as  mighty  as  his  power.  None  but  conse- 
crated hands  could  touch  the  ark  of  God;  thrice 


THE   FOURTH   COMMANDMENT.  1 29 

holy  should  be  the  hands  which  would  dare  alter 
the  testimony  which  lay  within  the  ark. 

By  the  lasting  authority  of  the  whole  Deca- 
logue with  which  the  Fourth  Commandment  is 
inseparably  connected,  which  is  the  embodiment 
of  immutable  moral  law,  and  by  the  very  words 
used  in  framing  the  command,  the  Sabbath  is 
shown  to  be  an  institution  of  absolute,  universal, 
and  unchanging  obligation. 

Here  may  properly  be  inserted  that  prayer 
which  the  Anglican  Church  prescribes  as  a  re- 
sponse to  the  recitation  of  each  of  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments :  ' '  Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us,  and 
incline  our  hearts  to  keep  this  law.'* 


130  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 


CHAPTER  III. 

TRANSIENT    AND    PERMANENT    ELEMENTS    IN 
THE   SABBATH   OF  ISRAEI.. 

/  "  There  is,  then,  in  the  Sabbath  that  which  is  shadowy  and       ] 

\      that  which  is  substantial,  that  which  is  transient  and  that 
which  is  permanent,  that  which  is  temporal  and  typical  and    J 
that  which  is  eternal."  f.  w.  Robertson.       / 

The  Sabbath  of  Israel  is  something  more  than 
the  institution  ordained  in  the  Fourth  Command- 
ment. That  was  something  universal  and  per- 
petual; but  there  was  also  a  local  and  temporary 
Sabbath,  having  its  ground,  indeed,  in  the  com- 
mandment, but  having  also  particujar  features  ot 
its  own  which  God  ordained  for  Israel  alone. 
Those  who  have  contended  for  the  present  non- 
obligation  of  the  Sabbath  on  account  of  its  being 
a  positive  institution  of  Judaism,  have  entirely- 
overlooked  this  distinction.  In  the  civil  law 
given  by  Moses  are  many  injunctions  for  Sabbath 
observance,  and  severe  penalties  attached  to  its 
profanation.  None  of  these  are  incorporated  in 
the  Decalogue ;  they  are  entirely  independent  of 
that  germinal  legislation.  These  injunctions  and 
penalties  are  no  part  of  the  abiding  law  of  the 
Sabbath.    They  doubtless  fulfilled  a  wise  purpose 


ELEMENTS  IN  THE  SABBATH  OF  ISRAEL.   I31 

in  the  training  of  the  chosen  people;  but,  having 
accomplished  that  end,  they  passed  away  and 
their  validity  is  at  an  end.  They  are  but  the 
transient  in  that  building  of  the  Sabbath  which 
was  erected  in  Eden  and  shall  stand  unshaken  in 
the  regained  Paradise  of  man.  They  w^ere  not 
intended  for  all  men  nor  for  all  time.  The  Mo- 
saic Sabbath,  w^hich  is  distinguished  from  the 
abiding  Sabbath  by  these  accidents  alone,  has 
with  these  passed  away.  But  the  substance  re- 
mains with  unchanged  validity  and  obligation. 

The  case  is  exactly  similar  with  the  other  com- 
mandments of  the  law.  Take  the  case  of  homi- 
cide. In  modern  times  public  justice  takes  the 
place  of  that  private  vengeance,  which  rightfully 
executed  the  law  in  Israel,  and  merciful  presump- 
tions of  law  have  superseded  cities  of  refuge.  Yet, 
independent  of  all  changes  in  the  mode  of  proce- 
dure or  punishment,  the  moral  law,  "Thou  shalt 
not  kill,"  lives  on,  the  unchanged  foundation  of 
widely  differing  methods  of  jurisprudence.  While 
men  no  longer  force  their  wives  to  drink  the  water 
of  jealousy,  the  Seventh  Commandment  is  as  bind- 
ing as  ever.  That  witchcraft,  necromancy,  and 
idolatry  are  no  longer  punished  by  death  does  not 
terminate  the  authority  of  the  command  to  wor- 
ship one  God  and  serve  him  alone,  knowing  that 
he  is  a  jealous  God  who  will  not  share  his  sove- 


133  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

reignty  with  another.  So  it  is  with  the  Sabbath. 
The  ritual  details  of  its  observance,  the  penalties 
for  violation,  the  particular  day  of  its  ordination — 
all  are  transient  elements  whose  decadence  does 
not  and  cannot  cause  to  cease  the  eternal  law 
which  existed  before  them  and  still  exists  after 
they  have  passed  away.  The  Decalogue,  being 
an  essential  portion  of  the  "Word  of  God  that 
abideth  for  ever,"  is  the  enduring  fountain  of  all 
law.  Upon  this  universal  code  all  particular 
legislation,  not  of  Israel  alone,  but  of  all  time, 
must  rest.  The  local  and  temporal  statutes  must 
not  be  confounded,  therefore,  with  the  universal 
and  permanent  law.  The  Fourth  Commandment 
does  not  differ  from  the  others  in  this  regard. 
They  are  all  alike  abiding  in  their  moral  author- 
ity and  all  alike  transient  in  their  special  mani- 
festations in  human  statutes  and  ceremonies. 

Although  the  methods  of  observing  and  enfor- 
cing a  moral  law  change  thus  with  each  changing 
dispensation,  yet  these  temporary  features  are  still 
testimonies  of  the  highest  value  to  the  sanctity 
and  obligation  of  the  law.  And  this  testimony  is 
the  more  weighty  when  these  statutes,  temporary 
though  they  may  be,  have  been  prescribed  by  di- 
vine authority,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Mosaic 
civil  polity  and  ceremonial  system.  In  this  man- 
ner the  Israelitish  Sabbath,  although  no  longer 


ELEMENTS  IN  THE  SABBATH  OE  ISRAEL.   133 

binding  upon  mankind,  is  of  the  highest  interest 
as  a  witness  to  the  sacred  character  of  the  abiding 
Sabbath.  Every  injunction,  ceremony,  and  pen- 
alty connected  with  it  adds  to  the  conception  of 
its  holiness  and  authority. 

Upon  the  Sabbath  the  people  w^ere  to  gather 
in  holy  convocations,  Lev.  23  :  3,  when  doubtless 
they  received  religious  instruction,  including, 
later  at  least,  the  reading  of  the  law.  Acts  15: 21. 
Special  acts  of  worship  were  reserved  to  this  day; 
double  sacrifices  were  enjoined  to  be  offered  in  the 
tabernacle  and  temple,  Num.  28  19,  10;  the  show- 
bread  was  renewed  on  the  table  of  the  sanctuar}^, 
Lev.  24:8;  and  songs  of  praise  were  sung,  the 
ninety -second  Psalm  being  specially  entitled, 
* '  For  the  Sabbath  day. ' '  The  prophets  seem  to 
have  made  a  particular  use  of  this  day  for  address- 
ing the  people,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  question, 
^'Wherefore  wilt  thou  go  to  the  man  of  God  to- 
day? it  is  neither  new  moon  nor  Sabbath.'* 
2  Kings  4  :  23.  Nor  is  the  day  less  impressively 
marked  by  prohibitions.  Upon  it  no  work  was 
to  be  done  by  man  or  beast;  the  preparation  of 
food  was  forbidden,  Bxod.  16  :  5,  23  ;  no  fire  was 
to  be  kindled  in  any  habitation,  Bxod.  35  :  3 ;  a 
man  was  even  put  to  death  for  gathering  sticks, 
Num.  15  :  32;  by  implication  all  buying  and  sell- 
ing were  deemed   unlawful,    Neh.    10 :  31 ;    and 


134  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

travelling  was  afterwards  held  to  be  forbidden  by 
Exod.  i6  :  29. 

As  if  it  were  desired  to  make  the  motives  for 
obedience  more  urgent  still,  the  death -penalty 
was  affixed  to  profanation  of  the  Sabbath.  "Six 
days  shall  work  be  done,  but  on  the  seventh  day- 
there  shall  be  to  you  a  holy  day,  a  Sabbath  of  rest 
to  the  Lord:  whosoever  doeth  work  therein  shall 
be  put  to  death."  Exod.  35  :  2.  There  is  but  one 
recorded  case  of  the  execution  of  the  sentence. 
Num.  15  :  32-36.  Whether  or  not  it  was  ever 
enforced  again  in  Israel,  its  existence  on  the  stat- 
ute-books of  the  nation  is  a  testimony  of  the 
strongest  kind  to  the  divine  estimate  of  the  worth 
of  the  Sabbath. 

While  the  Sabbath  of  Israel  had  features  which 
enforce  and  illustrate  the  abiding  Sabbath,  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  it  had  a  wholly  distinct  ex- 
istence of  its  own.  It  must  not  be  regarded  as 
merely  one  form  which  the  real  Sabbath  has  ta- 
ken in  history,  a  form  ordained  for  a  particular 
period  and  people.  Moses  really  instituted  some- 
thing new,  something  different  from  the  old  patri- 
archal seventh  day.  Not  improbably  a  different 
day  was  chosen,  particular  observances  were  en- 
joined, and  new  meanings  were  commemorated 
by  this  recurring  festival.  In  keeping  it  Israel 
truly  kept  a  "  Sabbath  to  the  Lord,"  but  its  spe- 


ELEMENTS  IN  THE  SABBATH  OF  ISRAEL.   135 

cial  obligations  rested  only  on  Israelites  and  those 
dwelling  on  Israelitisli  soil.  The  Mosaic  Sab- 
bath was  the  Sabbath  of  a  limited  and  tempo- 
rary dispensation ;  it  never  had  the  universal 
sweep  of  the  primitive  Sabbath  or  of  the  Chris- 
tian Lord's  day  which  has  superseded  it.  It  is 
the  only  institution  which  is  directly  called  Sab- 
bath in  the  Bible,  which  circumstance  has  led 
many  excellent  men  too  hastily  to  conclude  that, 
because  it  was  abolished,  therefore  no  similar  in- 
stitution is  now  in  existence  as  of  divine  obliga- 
tion. But  from  the  Hebrew  ordinance  the  name 
Sabbath  has  come  to  be  applied  to  that  perpetual 
ordinance  of  rest  and  worship  w^hich  existed  from 
the  beginning  and  shall  endure  wath  undimin- 
ished obligation  until  the  end  of  human  genera- 
tions. In  the  Mosaic  Sabbath,  for  the  time  of  its 
endurance  and  no  longer,  was  embodied,  for  a 
particular  people  and  no  others,  this  permanent 
institution  which  was  ordained  at  creation  and 
which  lives  now  with  more  excellent  glory  in  the 
Lord's  day.  The  generations  of  the  flowers  come 
and  go  with  the  spring-time  and  frosts  of  each  re- 
curring season,  but  in  the  seed  their  life  is  carried 
forward  from  year  to  year  with  undying  beauty. 
So  has  it  been  with  the  Sabbath.  Its  outward  form 
has  changed,  but  its  inner  life  has  still  the  fresh- 
ness and  vigor  given  it  in  the  morning  of  the  world. 


136  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SOME  SCRIPTURE  TESTIMONIES  TO  THE  VALUE 
OF  THE   SABBATH. 

"  This  is  the  day  that  the  Lord  hath  made ;  we  will  rejoice 
and  be  glad  in  it."  psa.  118:24. 

EivSEWHERE  in  this  essay  are  given  many- 
facts  connected  with  the  Sabbath  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture which  exemplify  its  value  and  enforce  its 
obligations.  It  was  first  proclaimed  amid  that 
angelic  symphony  which  celebrated  a  finished 
creation;  it  was  again  announced  by  the  awful 
voice  of  Jehovah  amid  the  flaming  terrors  of 
Sinai;  it  took  on  its  final  most  glorious  meaning 
when  the  conquering  Son  of  God  came  forth  lead- 
ing in  chains  the  vanquished  "king  of  terrors.'* 
The  abiding  Sabbath  shines  with  the  reflected 
radiance  of  these  three  great  events. 

When  God  entered  upon  the  ethical  teaching 
of  the  race  through  his  chosen  people,  he  gave 
special  prominence  to  the  Sabbath.  In  the  moral 
law  which  he  delivered  to  them  this  command- 
ment is  perhaps  the  most  full  and  explicit  of  all, 
being  the  only  one  which  expressly  charges  thgir- 
jneniory,  the  only  one  which  is  presented  in  both 


SCRIPTURE  TESTIMONIES  TO  ITS  VAI.UE.    137 

a  positive  and  a  negative  aspect,  and  one  of  the 
four  whicli  embody  an  argument  and  rest  on  a 
rendered  reason.  For  forty  years  he  set  upon  the 
Sabbath  the  sacred  seal  of  miracle  by  the  six  days' 
gift  of  manna  and  the  uncorrupted  portion  of  the 
seventh.  Based  upon  its  analogy,  he  gave  their 
national  life  the  seven-fold  rhythm  of  Sabbatic 
and  Jubilee  years,  and  interwove  the  number 
seven  [^into  their  entire  religious  symbolism.  In 
such  ways  has  God  signalized  and  attested  the 
honor  due  to  the  Sabbath  day. 

Under  the  theocracy,  profanation  of  the  Sab- 
bath was  punishable  with  death,  and  one  of  the 
few  recorded  instances  other  than  divine  judg- 
ments in  which  during  the  wandering  in  the  wil- 
derness the  death-penalty  was  inflicted  on  a  dis- 
obedient Israelite  is  a  case  of  Sabbath-breaking. 
No  sin  calls  forth  more  awful  threatenings  from 
Jehovah  through  the  mouth  of  the  prophets  than 
this.  For  the  sin  of  ''polluting  the  Sabbath" 
multitudes  of  Israel  perished  in  the  wilderness; 
for  the  same  sin  the  people  were  scattered  among 
the  heathen.  Ezek.  20: 12-24.  Upon  its  observ- 
ance depended  the  very  existence  of  Hebrew 
nationality.  ' '  If  ye  will  not  hearken  unto  me 
to  hallow  the  Sabbath  day,  and  not  to  bear  a 
burden,  even  entering  in  at  the  gates  of  Jerusa- 
lem on  the  Sabbath  day,  then  will  I  kindle  a  fire 


138  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

in  the  gates  thereof,  and  it  shall  devour  the  pala- 
ces of  Jerusalem,  and  it  shall  not  be  quenched." 
Jer.  17: 27.  In  a  terrible  catalogue  of  the  sins  of 
the  city  of  Jerusalem  it  is  charged,  * '  Thou  hast 
despised  mine  holy  things  and  hast  profaned  my 
Sabbaths."  Ezek.  22:8.  In  the  time  of  Amos 
those  who  wearied  of  the  Sabbath  (Amos  8:5)  are 
menaced  by  many  calamities.  In  these  penal- 
ties and  fearful  threatenings  of  judgment  has  God 
testified  to  the  sacredness  of  the  day  he  hallowed 
at  the  beginning  and  has  ever  honored  in  history. 
Not  only  by  penalties,  but  by  blessings;  not 
only  by  threats,  but  by  promises,  has  he  distin- 
guished the  Sabbath.  God  blessed  the  seventh 
day;  and  not  on  insensate  time  did  the  benedic- 
tion fail,  but  on  that  being  for  whom  the  Sabbath 
was  made.  Its  blessing  comes  to  those  who 
sacredly  observe  it.  Isaiah  under  divine  inspira- 
tion proclaims,  "Blessed  is  the  man  .  .  .  that 
keepeth  the  Sabbath  from  polluting  it.  .  .  Thus 
saith  the  Lord  unto  the  eunuchs  that  keep  my 
Sabbaths  and  choose  the  things  that  please  me 
and  take  hold  of  my  covenant;  even  unto  them 
will  I  give  in  mine  house  and  within  my  walls 
a  place  and  a  name  better  than  of  sons  and  of 
daughters:  I  will  give  them  an  everlasting  name, 
that  shall  not  be  cut  off.  Also  .  .  .  every  one  that 
keepeth  the  Sabbath  from  polluting  it,  .  .  .  even 


scripture:  testimonies  to  its  vai,ue.  139 

them  will  I  bring  to  my  holy  mountain,  and  make 
them  joyful  in  my  house  of  prayer. ' '  Isa.  56 : 2-7. 
And  in  another  place,  by  the  same  inspired  pen, 
the  Sabbath  and  its  proper  glory  are  described 
in  glowing  language:  "If  thou  turn  away  thy 
foot  from  the  Sabbath,  from  doing  thy  pleasure 
on  my  holy  day;  and  call  the  Sabbath  a  delight, 
the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honorable;  and  shalt  honor 
him,  not  doing  thine  own  ways  nor  finding  thine 
own  pleasure  nor  speaking  thine  own  words: 
then  shalt  thou  delight  thyself  in  the  Lord;  and  I 
will  cause  thee  to  ride  upon  the  high  places  of 
the  earth,  and  feed  thee  with  the  heritage  of  Ja- 
cob thy  father:  for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath 
spoken  it."  Isa.  58:13,  14.  Through  Jeremiah 
it  is  promised  that  if  the  Sabbath  is  honored  by 
Jerusalem,  "this  city  shall  remain  for  ever." 
Jer.  17:24,  25. 

What  reason  has  taught  us  as  to  the  advan- 
tages of  the  Sabbath  to  individuals  and  to  na- 
tions, is  confirmed  abundantly  by  the  declarations 
of  the  Word  of  God. 


140  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

CHAPTER    V. 
HISTORY  OF  THE   SABBATH   IN   ISRAEL. 

"  Hallow  my  Sabbaths ;  and  they  shall  be  a  sign  between 
me  and  you,  that  ye  may  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  your 

God."  EZEK  20:20. 

The  Sinaitic  Sabbath  was  a  covenant  sign  be- 
tween God  and  his  people.  It  commemorated 
their  national  deliverance  from  Egyptian  slavery, 
and  was  a  type  of  the  rest  which  remains  for  the 
people  of  God.  ' '  I  gave  them  my  Sabbath  to  be 
a  sign  between  me  and  them,  that  they  might 
knov/  that  I  am  the  Lord  that  sanctify  them.'* 
Ezek.  20  :  12.  It  was  the  germ  of  much  of  the 
external  polity  of  the  nation.  The  seventh  month, 
Lev.  23  :  23-36,  and  year,  ch.  25  : 1-7,  came  to 
share  in  some  degree  its  sacredness  ;  the  second 
great  annual  feast  and  the  year  of  jubilee  suc- 
ceeded respectively  * '  seven  Sabbaths  ' '  from  a 
designated  day,  ch.  23  :  15,  16,  and  "seven  Sab- 
baths of  years,"  ch.  25:8-12.  The  chief  days 
of  the  great  yearly  festivals,  Passover,  Pentecost 
and  Tabernacles,  were  described  as  Sabbaths. 
So  also  was  the  great  annual  fast,  or  day  of 
Atonement  :*  much  in  the  laws,  customs,  and  en- 
*  Exod.  12 :  16;  Lev.  23  :  7,  8,  21,  24,  32,  39. 


HISTORY  OF  THE    SABBATH    IN   ISRAKt.      I4I 

tire  civil  and  religious  life  of  Israel  thus  kept 
time  to  the  septuple  movement  of  recurring  Sab- 
baths. 

Those  are  greatly  mistaken  who  regard  the 
Israelitish  Sabbath  as  a  day  of  mere  inactivity. 
It  was  truly  a  sacred  festival.  The  sanctification 
of  the  Sabbath  was  to  be  accomplished  not  by 
mere  cessation  from  secular  toil,  but  by  holy  rites 
and  religious  exercises.  The  assemblies  which 
were  appointed  to  meet  on  this  day  were  not  mere 
crowds,  but  holy  convocations.  The  double  sac- 
rifices, the  changed  show-bread,  the  special 
Psalms — all  indicate  that  the  religious  view  of 
the  day  was  not  disregarded  by  the  Hebrew 
people.  It  was  also  a  day  of  religious  instruc- 
tion. Josephus  remarks  :  ' '  Moses  permitted  the 
people  to  leave  off  their  other  employments,  and 
to  assemble  together  for  the  hearing  of  the  law 
and  learning  it  exactly,  and  this  not  once  or 
twice,  or  oftener,  but  every  week."*  Philo  Ju- 
daeus  says  that  this  custom  always  continued 
among  the  Jews  of  gathering  on  the  seventh 
days  to  learn  and  discuss  their  religious  philos- 
ophy, f 

Nor  was  the  requirement  of  rest  so  rigid  and 
inflexible  as   may   be    imagined.     Even   in   the 

*  Josephus,  "  Against  Apion,"  11.  18. 

t  Philo  Judccus,  "  Works,"  685.    Paris,  1640. 


142  THE   ABIDING   SABBATII. 

days  of  strictest  observance  Jesus  could,  without 
rebuke  or  offence,  accept  an  invitation  to  a  Sab- 
bath dinner  at  the  house  of  a  principal  mem- 
ber of  the  rigid  Pharisaic  sect.  lyuke  14  :  i.  It 
seems  probable  that  the  law  of  necessity  was  rec- 
ognised from  the  beginning,  and  that  the  prohi- 
bition of  preparing  food  or  kindling  fire  did  not 
interdict  the  absolutely  necessary  labor  of  the 
Sabbath.  The  general  rule,  quite  probably,  was 
that  oriven  in  connection  with  the  Passover  :  ''In 
the  first  day  .  .  .  and  in  the  seventh  day  there 
shall  be  a  holy  convocation  to  you  ;  no  manner 
of  work  shall  be  done  in  them  save  that  which 
every  man  must  eat,  that  only  may  be  done  of 
you,"  Exod.  12  :  16. 

It  was  not  a  day  of  gloom,  but  of  gladness :  it  tes- 
tified to  joyful  events  in  the  national  history,  and 
so  far  from  being  a  penance,  it  was  to  be  a  "  de- 
light ' '  and  ' '  honorable. ' '  Isa.  58:13.  A  Psalm- 
ist, perhaps  David  in  his  flight  from  Absalom,  la- 
ments that  he  is  deprived  of  joining  on  that  day, 
or  on  one  of  the  festival  days,  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  partook  of  the  Sabbatic  character,  with 
those  who  in  the  house  of  God  raise  the  voice  of 
joy  and  praise.  Psa.  42 : 4.  On  one  of  the  Sab- 
batic holy  days,  shortly  before  the  Sabbath  was 
reinstated  with  new  strictness  after  the  return 
from  captivity,  Nehemiah  and  B2;ra  commanded 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SABBATH  IN  ISRAElv.     I43 

rejoicing,  saying,  *'The  joy  of  the  Lord  is  your 
strength."  The  Mosaic  Sabbath,  positive  and 
ceremonial  ordinance  as  it  was,  still  embodied 
the  true  Sabbath.  It  was  not  a  burden  but  a 
blessing. 

Such  rare  hints  as  we  possess  of  the  history  of 
the  Sabbath  in  Israel  are  sufficient  to  convince  us 
that  its  due  and  full  observance  was,  as  in  the 
case  of  all  the  religious  institutions  of  the  people, 
a  matter  of  growth.  Even  in  the  wilderness  their 
carelessness  in  this  regard  was  one  of  the  reasons 
for  the  long  national  hermitage  of  forty  years.  In 
the  unsettled  days  of  the  Judges  the  Sabbath  is 
not  once  mentioned.  What  we  know  of  the  prev- 
alence of  idolatry  among  the  people,  and  their 
frequent  bondage  to  Canaanitish  kings,  is  enough 
to  indicate  how  little  the  day  was  regarded.  With 
the  closer  organization  and  more  settled  polity  of 
the  kingdom  the  Sabbath  seems  to  have  revived. 
Under  David  its  prevalence  is  indicated  in  the 
order  of  alternation  of  the  gate-keepers  of  the  tab- 
ernacle. I  Chr.  9:22-25.  The  same  fact  regu- 
lated the  succession  of  the  priestly  courses,  i  Chr. 
24:19;  2  Chr.  8:14;  Luke  1:8.  In  the  days  of 
Joash  we  find  the  same  arrangement  employed  to 
save  the  life  of  the  young  king  from  the  vicious 
Athaliah.  2  Kin.  11:5-9;  2  Chr.  23:4-8.  The 
Mosaic  directions  for  special  sacrifices  on  the  Sab- 

Abiding  Sabbath,  lO 


144  "I'K^   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

bath  were  repeated  by  David  and  Solomon  and  by 
Hezekiah.  i  Chr.  23:31;  2  Chr.  2:4;  8:13;  31:3. 
But  during  these  long  years  of  alternate  apos- 
tasy and  repentance  the  Sabbath  did  not  receive 
its  full  due  honor  from  Israel.  It  was  for  the 
most  part  either  disused  or  misused  throughout 
this  whole  period.  Some  of  the  most  earnest  ex- 
hortations of  the  greater  prophets  are  towards  the 
better  sanctification  of  the  seventh  day.  They 
iised  the  day  as  a  special  time  of  religious  teach- 
ing. 2  Kin.  4:23.  They  denounced  its  profana- 
tion in  terrible  declarations  of  the  divine  judg- 
ments against  its  violators,  and  uttered  the  most 
persuasive  prophecies  of  the  national  glory  that 
would  follow  its  observance.  The  lyric  splendor 
of  Isaiah,  the  pathetic  entreaty  of  Jeremiah,  and 
the  elaborate  imagery  of  Ezekiel,  all  lent  their 
aid  to  press  upon  a  backslidden  people  the  claims 
of  the  covenant  sign  between  them  and  the  Al- 
mighty. The  bitter  punishment  of  dispersion 
and  captivity  which  the  two  kingdoms  under- 
went is  declared  to  have  been  in  retribution  for 
pollution  of  the  Sabbath.  The  moral  intensity 
of  this  great  prophetic  period  is  the  prelude  to 
that  strict  legalism  which  followed  the  return  of 
Judah  from  captivity,  in  which  the  remnant  of 
Israel  became  more  really,  perhaps,  than  ever  be- 
fore the  nation  of  the  law. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SABBATH  IN  ISRAEL.     145 

The  Jews  who  returned  from  Babylon  were  of 
the  choicest  blood  of  the  nation.  All  others,  to 
great  extent,  had  been  merged  with  the  idolatrous 
peoples  with  w^hom  they  had  mingled.  The  na- 
tional enthusiasm  for  riorhteousness,  so  lone  con- 
fined  and  corrupted  by  contact  with  the  outer 
world,  now  burst  forth  and  bore  its  most  bril- 
liant blossoms  and  fairest  fruitage.  It  was  one 
of  the  first  cares  of  Nehemiah  to  establish  a  holy 
Sabbath.  On  that  day  he  strictly  interdicted 
all  buying  and  selling,  closed  the  gates  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  forbade  all  agricultural  or  other  la- 
bor. He  also  revived  the  institution  of  the  Sab- 
batic year.  He  reminds  the  people,  as  he  gives 
these  orders,  of  the  evil  brought  upon  Israel  by 
profaning  the  Sabbath.  Neh.  10:31;  13:15-22. 
And  this,  which  was  in  some  degree  a  new  insti- 
tution of  the  Sabbath,  was  based  on  the  creation, 
the  deliverance  from  Egypt,  and  the  Decalogue. 
Neh.  9:6,  14,  38;  10:31. 

The  circumstance  which  doubtless  had  great- 
est influence  in  securing  the  respect  which  was 
certainly  accorded  to  the  institution  before  the 
Christian  era,  was  the  establishment  of  the  syna- 
gogue worship  and  instruction,  probably  by  Ezra 
the  scribe.  This,  by  securing  public  religious 
services  in  every  locality,  served  to  deeply  im- 
press this  duty  upon  the  Jewish  people,  as  well  as 


146  THE    ABIDING   SABBATH. 

to  create  the  spirit  of  Sabbath  observance  among 
them.  It  was  the  deepening  intensity  of  the  legal 
feeling  thus  induced  which  at  last  produced  the 
Rabbinical  system  and  Sabbath,  with  which  Je- 
sus placed  himself  in  such  direct  antagonism. 

An  institution  thus  entwined  with  all  the  cus- 
toms and  polity  of  the  nation  could  not  be  easily 
given  up.  No  act  of  tyranny  of  Antiochus  Epiph- 
anes  was  more  bitterly  resented  by  Judaea  than 
that  he  turned  ^'her  Sabbaths  into  reproach,'^ 
and  gave  orders  * '  that  they  should  profane  the 
Sabbaths  and  festival  days."  i  Mace.  1:39-45. 
The  Maccabean  insurrection  was,  as  has  been  el- 
oquently said  by  a  Jewish  orator,  ''the  first  in- 
stance of  a  whole  people  rising  up,  in  the  majesty 
of  their  righteous  scorn,  to  vindicate  their  rights 
of  conscience  and  of  faith."  The  Sabbath  has 
the  high  honor  of  being  a  principal  point  of  con- 
science contended  for  in  that  great  death-grapple 
of  a  higher  faith  with  a  decaying  paganism.  A 
singular  instance  of  the  even  superstitious  rever- 
ence for  tl^e  day  which  existed  at  this  time  is  the 
refusal  of  some  of  the  refugees  from  the  Anti- 
ochian  persecution  to  even  resist  an  attack  made 
upon  them  on  the  Sabbath,  and  their  consequent 
slaughter.  The  Maccabees,  possibly  remembering 
that  one  of  the  seven  days  of  the  besieging  of 
Jericho  must  have  been  a  Sabbath,    "decreed, 


HISTORY  OF  THK  SABBATH  IN  ISRAKI..     147 

saying,  Whoever  will  come  to  make  battle  with 
us  on  the  Sabbath  day,  we  will  fight  against  him ; 
neither  will  we  die  all,  as  our  brethren  who  were 
murdered  in  the  secret  places."  i  Mace.  2:31-41. 
Yet  they  did  not  sufficiently  relax  the  stringency 
with  which  the  day  was  observed  to  undertake 
ofiensive  military  operations  on  that  day.  On 
one  occasion  they  suspended  the  pursuit  of  a  flee- 
ing enemy  because  of  the  on-coming  Sabbath, 
and,  having  gathered  together  their  spoils,  **they 
occupied  themselves  about  the  Sabbath,  yielding 
exceeding  praise  and  thanks  to  the  lyord^  who 
had  preserved  them  unto  that  day,  which  was 
the  beginning  of  mercy  distilling  upon  them." 
2  Mace.  8:24-27.  This  excessive  scrupulousness 
was  taken  advantage  of  by  Pompey  when  he  be- 
sieged Jerusalem.  He  occupied  the  Sabbath  in 
undisturbed  preparations  for  assault  on  the  fol- 
lowing day.  It  was  largely  through  the  advan- 
tage thus  gained  that  he  was  able  at  length  to 
capture  the  city.  * 

The  strictness  with  which  the  Jews  kept  the 
day  is  attested  by  heathen  writers  also,  generally 
in  the  way  of  ridicule  and  censure.  Tacitus  says 
that  ' '  the  Hebrews  find  leisure  agreeable  on  the 
seventh  day  because  it  put  an  end  to  work,  and 
they  also,  by  the  allurement  of  indolence,  give 
*  Josephus,  "Antiquities  of  the  Jews,"  XIV.  43. 


148  THE   ABIDING   vSABBATH. 

the  seventh  year  to  laziness."*  Juvenal  satiri- 
cally says, 

"  Each  seventh  day  their  bigot  sires 
Rescind  from  all  that  social  life  requires. "f 

Seneca  censures  the  Jews  for  wasting  in  idleness 
the  seventh  part  of  life-l  In  similar  terms  of 
ridicule  or  denunciation  Ovid,  Martial,  Petronius, 
and  others,  give  evidence  to  the  vitality  of  the 
institution  in  the  later  period  of  Jewish  history. 
Indeed,  the  Jews  were  so  far  able  to  guard  its 
sanctity,  even  under  Roman  rule,  as  to  obtain  a 
decree  from  Augustus  that  Jews  should  be  exempt 
from  all  judicial  proceedings  on  the  Sabbath  day.§ 
There  is  not  wanting  evidence  that  many  of  the 
Romans  themselves,  as  well  as  Greeks,  had  al- 
ready begun  to  keep  the  day  in  some  manner. 
Horace  observes  concerning  the  Sabbath, 

"  This  is  the  Jews'  high  feast,  and  I  suspect 
You  'd  hardly  like  to  spurn  that  holy  sect."I| 

Juvenal  declares,  in  the  Satire  quoted  above,  that 
many  who  had  become  Jews  began  by  observing 
the  Sabbath,  t 

This  brief  outline  of  the  history  of  the  Jewish 

*  "  History,"  V.  5.  f  "  Satires,"  XIV.  105. 

t  Augustine,  "  City  of  God,"  IV.  11. 
^  Josephus,  "  Antiquities,"  XVI.  2,  3. 
II  "  Satire  "  9. 

^  See  also  Josephus,  "Against  Apion,"  the  "Roman  His- 
tory of  Dion  Cassius,"  and  "  Kenan's  Lectures  on  Judaism." 


HISTORY  OF  the;  SABBATH  IN  ISRAEI..    I49 

institution  shows  how  it  had  gradually  increased 
in  influence  and  finally  culminated  in  the  exces- 
sively formal  Sabbath  of  Rabbinism. 

After  the  Captivity  that  class  of  Jewish  teach- 
ers known  as  the  scribes  came  into  prominence. 
Their  first  task  was  the  critical  one  of  transcri- 
bing and  preserving  the  sacred  text  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. They  became  naturally  the  teachers  of  the 
law  of  which  they  had  been  constituted  guardians. 
For  what  they  regarded  as  the  better  observance 
of  the  old  precepts,  they  added  new  injunctions 
by  way  of  building  what  they  called  ''fences'* 
about  the  law.  And  thus  grew  up  that  body  of 
oral  legislation  known  as  the  Mishna,  which  after- 
wards was  the  core  of  that  wilderness  of  philoso- 
phy, fancy,  and  folly,  the  Jewish  Talmud.  Not 
uncommonly  this  oral  tradition  was  set  above  the 
written  law  in  its  authority.  It  was  fabled  that 
it  had  been  delivered  with  the  text  of  the  Deca- 
logue to  Moses  on  Mount  Sinai.  Such  sayings  as 
these  abound:  "The  text  of  Scripture  is  like  wa- 
ter, and  the  Mishna  like  wine."  "  The  words  of 
the  scribes  are  lovely  above  the  words  of  the 
law."  Not  undeserved  was  the  condemnation 
uttered  by  Jesus  when  he  accused  the  scribes  of 
''making  the  Word  of  God  of  none  effect  through 
your  traditions." 

The  Mishnic  teachings  devote,  in  the  Soder 


150  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

Md^ed^  or  order  of  festivals,  no  less  than  thirty- 
four  chapters  exclusively  to  the  subject  of  the 
Sabbath,  besides  numerous  precepts  on  the  same 
topic  scattered  broadcast  through  the  Talmud. 
Nothing  is  left  of  it  but  a  punctilious  outward 
observance.  Its  duties  are  discussed  with  the 
utmost  minuteness  of  detail  and  the  subtlest  re- 
finements of  casuistry.  Rules  as  to  what  kind  of 
knots  could  be  tied  on  the  Sabbath,  what  kind  of 
sandals  and  other  garments  might  be  worn,  what 
food  should  be  eaten,  and  what  burdens  borne, 
fill  these  curious  pages.  Hillel  and  Shammai 
gravely  discuss  whether  an  ^%'g  which  a  hen  has 
laid  on  the  Sabbath  may  be  used,  and  finally  de- 
cide that  it  may  be  if  the  hen  is  kept  only  for  the 
express  purpose  of  laying  eggs !  Two  letters  could 
not  be  written;  even  a  needle  could  not  be  carried 
in  the  pocket,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  a  working- 
tool  ;  an  emetic  must  not  be  administered,  or  a 
bone  be  set  on  that  day.  The  Talmud  teaches 
that  the  Sabbath  extends  throughout  the  uni- 
verse, and,  consequently,  the  lost  in  hell  have  on 
that  day  respite  from  their  torments. 

As  was  perfectly  natural,  such  rigidity  led  to 
hypocritical  evasions.  The  S*abbath-day's  jour- 
ney, which  is  not  prescribed  in  the  law  of  Moses 
at  all,  but  is  a  Rabbinical  precept,  was  two  thou- 
sand cubits,  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile.     But 


HISTORY  OF  THK  SABBATH  IN  ISRAKI..    15I 

this  means,  say  the  scribes,  that  distance  from 
one's  dwelling.  Now  a  man's  dwelling  is  where 
his  food  is;  consequently,  he  has  only  to  place  a 
piece  of  meat  two  thousand  cubits  from  his  house 
on  the  day  before,  and  that,  by  legal  fiction  extend- 
ing his  dwelling  to  such  a  point,  will  give  the 
right  to  double  the  length  of  the  Sabbath-day's 
journey.  Put  chains  across  the  two  ends  of  a 
street,  and  you  make  it  a  single  dwelling.  By 
such  sophistries  as  these  the  scribes  were  able,  on 
occasion,  to  nullify  the  whole  law. 

There  are  not  wanting  more  liberal  views  of 
the  Sabbath  in  the  Talmud.  It  says,  ''The  Sab- 
bath is  for  you,  and  you  are  not  for  the  Sabbath," 
an  aphorism  w^hich  bears  a  striking  resemblance 
to  the  saying  of  Jesus  recorded  by  Mark  (2  :  27). 
For  the  sake  of  an  infant  it  might  be  broken,  ' '  for 
the  babe  will  keep  many  a  Sabbath  yet  for  the 
one  that  was  broken  for  it. ' '  Nor  was  the  Rab- 
binical Sabbath  a  day  of  gloom.  Such  maxims 
as  these  abound:  "  Meet  the  Sabbath  with  a  lively 
hunger;"  *'Put  on  all  thy  cheerfulness,  and  say 
nothing  but  what  is  provocative  of  gladness  and 
good  feeling."  One  rule  is  still  obeyed  to  a  large 
extent  in  these  laler  days:  "Walk  leisurely,  for 
the  law  requires  it,  as  it  also  does  longer  sleep  in 
the  morning. '  *  A  very  high  Jewish  authority  in- 
dignantly says,  "We  cannot  refrain  from  enter- 


152  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

ing  a  protest  against  the  vulgar  notion  of  the 
*  Jewish  Sabbath'  being  a  thing  of  grim  austerity. 
It  was  precisely  the  contrary,  a  '  day  of  joy  and 
delight, '  a  '  feast '  day,  honored  by  fine  garments, 
by  the  best  cheer,  by  wine,  lights,  spice,  and  other 
joys  of  preeminently  bodily  import;  and  the  high- 
est expression  of  the  feeling  of  self-reliance  and 
independence  is  contained  in  the  adage,  '  Rather 
live  on  your  Sabbath  as  you  would  on  a  w^eek-day 
than  be  dependent  on  others."* 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  this  broader  and  more 
indulgent  view,  the  multiplication  of  rules  could 
not  fail  to  create  a  real  slavery  of  will.  Only  the 
acute  priests  and  Rabbins  knew  how  to  avail 
themselves  of  these  indulgences,  while  to  the  less 
subtle  multitude  the  Sabbath  became  a  burden 
rather  than  a  delight.  Indeed,  the  mission  of 
Israel  as  the  nation  of  the  law  had  been  fully  ac- 
complished. The  importence  of  the  moral  law 
to  secure  the  obedience  it  commanded  had  been 
fully  demonstrated,  while  its  teaching  power  was 
quite  exhausted.  Amid  the  general  failure  to  feel 
its  inward  life  and  to  realize  its  spiritual  essence, 
its  letter  was  enthroned  above  its  spirit,  and  for- 
mal observances  were  substitilted  for  real  right- 
eousness.   This  was  true  not  only  of  the  Sabbath, 

*  Emanuel  Deutsch,  Lectures  on  "The  Talmud,"  in  "Lit- 
erary Remains,"  p.  30. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  SABBATH  IN  ISRAEI..    1 53 

but  of  all  the  commands  of  the  law.  Its  loftier 
sense  was  hidden  and  lost  beneath  the  thick  in- 
crustation of  petty  mechanical  requirements  with 
which  it  was  overlaid. 

The  time  was  fully  come  for  a  change.  That 
change  could  take  place  only  by  the  sweeping 
away  of  Rabbinical  tradition,  by  bringing  forth 
again  the  inner  reason  and  significance  of  the 
abiding  Sabbath,  and  by  such  a  breaking  of  con- 
nection with  the  letter  of  the  Sabbath  law  as 
would  for  ever  hedge  up  the  way  to  any  return  to 
Pharisaic  ritualism.  The  time  was  come  for  the 
establishment  of  that  noblest  and  truest  earthly 
form  of  the  Sabbatic  institution,  the  lyord's  day, 
or  the  Christian  Sabbath,  which  fully  answers  all 
the  demands  of  the  moral  law,  and,  by  breaking 
loose  from  the  particular  day  observed  as  the  Jew- 
ish Sabbath,  avoids  many  of  the  dangers  of  le- 
galism. 

Israel  had  not  attained  true  rest.  Not  Moses 
nor  Joshua  nor  David  nor  Nehemiah  was  able  to 
secure  it  for  them.  (Hebrews,  third  and  fourth 
chapters.)  The  true  Sabbatism  of  faith  awaited 
*' another  day"  as  its  present  expression  and  prom- 
ise of  future  perfection.  That  day  is  the  Lord's 
day,  the  day  of  the  accomplished  redemption  of 
man  and  promised  redemption  of  the  world. 


PART    III. 

ABBATH  0P  REDEMPTI0N, 


THE 


SABBATH  OF  REDEMPTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

TESTIMONY  OK  JESUS   CHRIST. 

"  These  things  saith  the  Amen,  the  faithful  and  true  Wit- 
ness, the  beginning  of  the  creation  of  God."  rev.  3 :  17. 

"  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit  and  they 
are  life."  john6:63. 

The  Incarnation  is  the  central  fact  of  the 
world's  history.  All  the  roads  of  the  centuries 
lead  to  and  from  it.  It  is  the  key  to  every  event 
in  history  and  all  right  thinking  in  philosophy. 
Jesus  being  thus  the  culmination  of  the  moral 
order  of  the  world,  his  appearance  becomes  the 
turning-point  in  the  course  of  history.  Jesus 
Christ  came  to  put  an  end  to  the  old  order  of 
things.  The  forms,  ceremonies,  and  customs  of 
the  past,  as  they  pass  into  the  testing  crucible  of 
his  method  and  teaching,  are  either  destroyed  or 
come  forth  changed  and  set  in  a  new  light  and 


158  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

clothed  with  new  meaniugs.  How  does  the  Sab- 
bath endure  the  ordeal  to  which  his  mission  sub- 
mits every  system  and  ordinance  of  the  ancient 
world  ? 

Jesus,  like  every  true  reformer,  was  no  mere 
iconoclast.  It  was  not  his  purpose  simply  to  tear 
down  the  building  of  the  ages ;  his  mission  was 
constructive  rather.  He  came  to  interpret  the 
past,  to  bring  forth  the  true  meanings  of  its  sys- 
tems of  worship,  government,  and  culture.  He 
says,  in  most  explicit  terms,  **  Think  not  that  I 
am  come  to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets;  I  am 
not  come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil."  Matt.  5:17. 
His  relation  to  the  whole  providential  history  of 
the  past  was  not  one  of  destruction,  but  of  con- 
summation. "  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law,"  not 
negatively,  that  its  provisions  may  be  ignored, 
but  positively,  *'for  righteousness  to  every  one 
that  believeth. ' '  Rom.  10  :  4.  He  fulfils  the  cer- 
emonial law  by  realising  its  typical  significations 
in  his  own  redemptive  work,  and  by  disclosing  its 
substance  freed  from  the  obligation  of  the  shadow; 
he  fulfils  the  moral  law  by  his  perfect  conformity 
to  it,  and  by  giving  it  new  sanction,  in  revealing  its 
inward  meaning,  and  thus  investing  it  with  a  ho- 
lier strictness,  and  by  imparting  the  vital  motive 
of  obedience  by  which  alone  its  spiritual  essence 
can  be  regarded.     The  shadowy  forms  of  ceremo- 


TESTIMONY   OF   JESUS   CHRIST.  1 59 

nialism  vanish  for  ever  in  the  blaice  of  light  given 
by  the  divine  reality  they  typified ;  but  in  that  ra- 
diance the  moral  law  they  hid  as  well  as  guarded 
stands  out  more  clearly  in  all  its  heaven -born 
beauty.  Such  is  the  true  relation  of  Jesus  Christ 
to  the  Hebrew  code  as  revealed  by  his  own  testi- 
mony. 

It  ought  not  to  be  difficult  to  apply  these  prin- 
ciples to  the  Sabbath.  As  already  shown,  the 
Sabbath  contained  moral  elem^ents ;  it  belonged 
not  solely  to  Israel,  but  was  sanctioned  by  the 
primitive  revelation  to  the  race,  being  the  first 
article  in  the  law  of  the  beginning  ;  it  was  a  part 
of  that  sublime  code  which  by  the  mouth  of  the 
Eternal  himself  was  spoken  to  his  chosen  people 
from  the  mountain  of  God;  its  violation  had  been 
surrounded  in  the  Mosaic  legislation  and  in  the 
prophetic  instructions  with  penalties  and  its  ob- 
servance with  blessings  such  as  could  hardly  be 
attached  to  a  simple  institution  of  ritual.  The 
abiding  Sabbath,  belonging  to  the  moral  law,  is 
therefore  not  repealed  or  cancelled  by  Jesus,  but 
rather  confirmed  with  new  uses,  loftier  meanings, 
and  holier  objects.  The  ceremonial  Sabbath  is 
indeed  done  away,  but  the  moral  Sabbath  abides 
by  the  authority  of  the  Sabbath's  I^ord. 

Besides  this  statement  of  his  relation  to  the 
law  in  general,  Christ  has  given  special  intima- 

Ablding  Sabbath.  I  I 


l6o  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

tions  of  his  will  concerning  the  Sabbath.  And 
here  we  must  expect  nothing  explicit.  It  is  not 
the  method  of  Jesus  to  give  minute  directions  or 
go  into  detail  on  any  subject.  His  teachings  are 
in  large  outline ;  they  are  the  announcement  of 
principles  which  are  capable  of  wide  application 
A  not  only  to  the  subject  in  hand,  but  also  to  all 
similar  questions  that  may  be  proposed.  He  has 
given,  not  the  grown  harvest  of  doctrine,  but  the 
living  germs  with  which  all  gardens  and  fields  of 
thought  may  be  sown,  and  which  will  unfold  into 
flowers  of  moral  beauty  and  waving  forests  of  spir- 
itual truth.  Such  is  the  method  of  Jesus  in  gen- 
eral, and  such  is  his  treatment  of  the  question  of 
the  Sabbath  day. 

The  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  concerning  the 
Sabbath  naturally  divide  themselves  into  two 
parts:  first,  his  condemnation  of  the  Rabbinical 
perversions  of  its  true  end,  and  consequently  of 
the  ceremonial  Sabbath  in  general ;  and,  second- 
ly, his  declaration  of  a  higher  ground  for  the  Sab- 
bath than  Judaism  furnished,  and  his  consequent 
confirmation  of  the  eternal  moral  essence  of  the 
Sabbatic  law. 

I.  yestis  dcnottnces  the  false  siricifiess  of  the  yew- 
ish  Sabbath. 

After  the  Captivity,  as  has  been  seen,  the  Jew- 
ish people  entered  upon  a  new  national  life.    The 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   CHRIST.  l6l 

discipline  of  national  sorrows  was  not  lost  on  them, 
and  henceforth  they  devoted  themselves  with  a 
new-found  ^eal  to  the  law  and  ritual  of  their  reli- 
gion. The  Mosaic  institutions  took  on  a  sharper 
definition  and  a  stricter  interpretation.  But  this 
new  fervent  loyalty  to  the  law  ended,  as  all  exces- 
sive legalism  always  will,  in  the  enthronement  of 
the  letter  above  the  spirit  and  in  a  highly  devel- 
oped ceremonial  system  at  the  expense  of  a  real 
righteousness. 

Such  absurd  questions  as  whether  it  would 
not  be  a  kind  of  hunting  to  kill  a  flea  on  the  Sab- 
bath were  gravely  argued  with  a  micrologic  ^eal 
for  the  very  letter  of  the  law.  A  whole  body  of 
traditional  lore  in  the  shape  of  a  developed  com- 
ment on  the  law  had  grown  up,  giving  the  most 
minute  directions  for  the  observance  of  its  every 
article.  To  this  system  Jesus  placed  himself  in 
direct  antagonism.  "Ye  make  the  word  of  God 
of  none  efiect  through  your  tradition."  Mark 
7:13.  His  most  terrible  denunciations  w^ere  re- 
served for  this  hypocritical  blindness  which  Avould 
not  see  the  large  outline  of  spiritual  duty  and 
vital  morality  involved  in  the  commandments  of 
God,  but  magnified  every  petty  formal  observance 
which  could  obscure  or  seemingly  excuse  actual 
disobedience. 

The  occasion  could  not  long  be  delayed  in 


^ 


162  THE   ABIDING    SABBATH. 

which  he  would  come  into  collision  with  the 
perverted  conception  of  the  Sabbath.  The  Rab- 
bins had  said,  ' '  Grass  must  not  be  walked  upon 
on  the  Sabbath  day,  for  that  would  be  a  sort  of 
threshing. ' '  But  the  disciples  of  Christ,  walking 
through  the  fields  on  the  Sabbath,  satisfied  their 
hunger  by  rubbing  out  the  grain  between  their 
hands  and  eating  it.  Matt.  12:1.  Jesus  meets 
the  charge  of  Sabbath-breaking  by  citing  the 
example  of  David  in  eating  the  show-bread,  in 
proof  that  human  necessity  is  a  higher  law  than 
physical  rest,  which  is  only  the  negative  side  of 
the  Sabbath  law,  and  that  the  Sabbath,  to  exist, 
must  maintain  its  harmony  with  the  other  laws 
of  that  God  who  ' '  will  have  mercy,  and  not  sac- 
rifice." The  Sabbath  is  not  to  be  man's  burden, 
but  delight;  it  is  made  for -man  and  for  his  good. 
It  is  not  to  become  a  rigid  mould  to  which  he 
must  fit  himself,  but  must  be  adapted  to  his  needs, 
both  physical  and  spiritual.  The  Jewish  tradition 
had  declared  that  the  art  of  healing  was  not  to 
be  exercised  on  the  Sabbath  day  unless  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  preservation  of  life.  Jesus  on 
the  Sabbath  restores  the  man  with  the  withered 
hand,  declaring  that  it  is  lawful  to  do  good  on 
the  Sabbath;  and  thereby  he  has  taught  that 
nothing  can  be  holier  than  mercy,  and  that  the 
holy  day  is  not  violated,  but  sanctified,  by  holy 


TESTIMONY   Q-^  JKSUS   CHRIST.  163 

deeds.  To  the  same  end  are  all  tlie  other  cases 
of  healing  on  the  Sabbath  used  by  the  Saviour.* 
There  is  not  in  all  this  any  hint  of  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  Sabbath,  or  release  from  its  obliga- 
tions. The  words  of  Jesus  become  meaningless 
when  they  are  applied  to  anything  but  the  abuses 
and  perversions  of  its  purposes  by  the  Rabbini- 
cal schools.  Had  he  desired  to  abolish  it  alto- 
gether, nothing  would  have  been  easier  than  to 
do  so  in  terms.  His  words  are  everywhere  framed 
with  the  utmost  care,  and  strictly  guarded  against 
any  construction  which  would  involve  a  denial 
of  the  real  sacredness  of  the  day  blessed  by  the 

*  That  Jesus  did  not  disregard  Jewish  feeling  in  regard  to 
the  Jewish  Sabbath,  when  the  sentiment  was  not  opposed  to 
the  true  law  of  God,  is  shown  by  his  injunction  to  his  disciples 
with  regard  to  their  conduct  in  respect  to  the  impending 
doom  of  Judasa.  "  Pray  ye,"  he  says,  "  that  your  flight  be  not 
in  the  winter,  neither  on  the  Sabbath  day''  Matt.  24 :  20.  In 
that  coming  desolation  there  was  certainty  of  sufficient  gloom 
without  the  added  difficulties  of  a  winter  journey  such  as 
storm  and  swollen  water-courses,  or  the  loss  of  Sabbath  rest 
and  consolation.  There  is  probably  a  reference  to  the  fact  that 
scruple  in  regard  to  exceeding  the  "  Sabbath  day's  journey," 
limited  by  the  scribes  to  2,000  cubits,  might  act  as  a  check  on 
Jewish  Christians'  escape ;  beside  which,  closed  city  gates 
might  materially  impede  their  progress.  It  is  possible,  also, 
that  we  should  regard  the  Sabbath  of  Israel  as  binding  on 
Jews  to  some  extent  until  the  complete  breaking  up  of  their 
national  polity  by  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  with  its  tem- 
ple, and  the  consequent  cessation  of  the  whole  sacrificial  and 
ceremonial  system. 


164  THK  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

Creator  and  sanctioned  by  the  moral  law.  The 
whole  force  of  the  language  which  he  uses  lies  in 
the  fact  that  he  is  opposing  the  transient  human 
element  in  the  institution,  and  opposing  it  in  the 
interests  of  the  deeper  significance  which  belongs 
to  that  in  it  which  is  permanent  and  divine.  He 
does  not  ' '  make  void  the  law, ' '  but  establishes  it 
rather,  by  liberating  the  holy  ordinance  from  the 
material  bondage  imposed  upon  it  by  men;  he 
does  not  destroy  it,  but  gives  it  new  life  by 
tearing  away  the  beggarly  elements  of  a  passing 
human  economy  with  which  it  had  become  en- 
twined, and  which  could  only  bring  decay  and 
death  to  the  precious  reality  which  they  inclosed. 
It  is  to  be  noticed  that  Jesus  nowhere  takes  the 
trouble  to  purify  any  merely  ceremonial  insti- 
tution from  Rabbinical  glosses.  That  he  does  so 
with  regard  to  the  Sabbath  is  a  positive  proof 
that  there  was  in  it  something  which  he  intended 
should  endure  us  a  part  of  the  order  in  human 
society  which  he  established. 

The  "fence  "  that  the  Jewish  masters  built  to 
guard  the  law  became  too  soon  a  wall  to  hide  it. 
Jesus  tore  away  the  surrounding  walls  of  cere- 
mony and  form  only  that  the  living  truth  might 
appear  to  man.  Nothing  but  antinomian  blind- 
ness can  otherwise  interpret  his  words.  A  fran- 
tic hyper-spiritualism  and  an  undisciplined  mys- 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   CHRIST.  165 

ticism  may  join  hands  with  a  supercilious  ration- 
alism in  misjudgment  of  his  spirit  and  method. 
A  sane  interpretation  of  his  words,  in  the  light  of 
the  facts  and  in  their  historic  setting,  reveals  that 
his  opposition  to  the  Jewish  Sabbath  w^as  inspired 
by  his  allegiance  to  that  abiding  Sabbath  which 
existed  before  Judaism  and  should  survive  its 
downfall.  This  leads  the  w^ay  to  the  second  prop- 
osition. 

2.  yesus  confirms  the  Sabbath  on  its  spiritual 
basis. 

*'The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not 
man  for  the  Sabbath  ;  therefore  the  Son  of  man 
is  Lord  also  of  the  Sabbath."  Mark  2  :  27,  28. 
Such  is  the  remarkable  declaration  of  our  Sa- 
viour, and  in  so  declaring,  he  not  only  dated 
back  the  origin  of  the  day  before  the  giving  of 
the  law  to  Israel,  but  asserted  his  power  and  im- 
plied his  purpose  to  enlarge  its  significance  and 
bequeath  it  in  a  worthier  form  to  the  whole 
world.  Thus  he  at  once  rid  it  of  all  the  false 
restrictions  of  Judaism,  and,  establishing  it  upon 
its  primitive  foundations,  he  brought  forth  its 
higher  reason  in  the  assertion  of  its  relation  to 
the  well-being  of  man. 

"The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man  :"  not  for 
the  Jew  only,  but  for  the  whole  race  of  mankind  ; 
not  for  one  age  alone,  but  for  man  universally, 


l66  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

under  every  circumstance  of  time  and  place.  By 
this  declaration  Christ  has  freed  the  Sabbath 
from  all  local  and  temporal  reference,  and  re- 
vealed its  existence  and  authority  as  coextensive 
with  the  entire  race  of  man.  Because  man 
everywhere  and  always  needs  a  Sabbath,  there- 
fore everywhere  and  always  will  he  know  the 
blessing  and  be  under  the  obligation  of  that  Sab- 
bath which  was  given  at  the  beginning  with  ref- 
erence to  the  higher  necessities  of  his  nature. 

"The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man  :"  it  is  cer- 
tainly fair  to  infer  from  this  language  that  it  was 
contemporaneous  with  man,  made  for  him  when 
he  was  made.  When  the  temple  of  nature  had 
been  completed,  with  its  doming  skies  and  but- 
tressing mountains,  with  its  organ  music  of 
v/hispering  winds  and  roaring  billows,  then  was 
placed  at  its  sacred  altar  man,  the  priest  as  well 
as  king  of  nature  ;  and  then  God  "blessed  and 
sanctified ' '  a  day  on  which  he  should,  in  special 
manner,  offer  the  incense  of  praise  and  thanks- 

y giving.  A  day  of  worship  was  the  first  gift  of- 
fered to  a  being  capable  of  worship.  Not  to  the 
physical  realm  of  things  does  the  rest-day  come 
with  its  highest  meanings,  although  even  those 
animals  which  are  associated  with  man  shall 
know  the  blessedness  of  its  rest ;  it  is  for  man  the 
spiritual  being,  made  in  the  image  of  his  Maker, 


TESTIMONY   OF  JKvSUS   CHRIST.  167 

made  to  trust,  to  adore,  and  to  love,  that  the 
Sabbath  is  made.  He  alone  can  realise  that 
diviner  rest  of  the  spirit  which  has  as  its  pattern 
the  spiritual  repose  of  God  after  his  work  of  crea- 
tion. As  the  witness  and  teacher  of  his  super- 
natural relations  and  being,  the  Sabbath  was 
made  for  man :  made,  that  by  its  aid  and  influ- 
ence he  might  transcend  his  earthly  life  and  as- 
sert his  loftier  nature  and  destiny. 

The  Sabbath  being  "made  for  man,"  it  is  not 
so  much  by  the  restraint  of  the  body  as  by  the 
freedom  of  the  spirit  that  its  obligation  is  ful- 
filled; it  is  not  a  chain  to  bind  him.,  but  a  libera- 
ting angel  that  opens  the  door  of  his  prison- 
house,  and  gives  him  the  freedom  of  those  spirit- 
ual palaces  of  light  whose  stately,  shining  walls 
arise  unseen  beside  our  huts  of  clay.  "  Man  was 
not  made  for  the  Sabbath,"  to  work  the  tread- 
mill of  the  burdensome  requirements  with  which 
human  traditions  had  surrounded  it ;  but  because 
man's  whole  nature  needed  the  Sabbath,  there- 
fore it  was  given  to  be  a  perennial  spring  of  glad- 
ness, the  uplifter  of  his  life,  and  the  enfranchise- 
ment of  his  soul. 

The  phrase  "made  for  man"  has  suggestive  , 
reaches  beyond  even  these  high  meanings.  Not  / 
only  the  bending  heavens  with  their  burning/ 
lights,  the  fair  earth  with  its  mountains,  valleys, 


1 68  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

and  plains,  the  waving  forests  and  the  fruitful 
fields,  the  subtile  forces  of  the  air  and  the  hidden 
treasures  of  the  mines — not  only  were  these  made 
for  that  being  in  whom  nature  consummated  its 
meaning  by  coming  to  self-consciousness ;  but 
time  brought  its  gift  of  days  as  well :  six  robed 
in  russet  garb  of  service,  but  one  in  queenly  rai- 
ment clad,  with  shining  fingers  pointing  the  way 
upward  and  onward  to  that  eternity  of  bliss  of 
which  it  is  the  God-blessed  symbol  set  in  time. 
It  is  a  part  of  the  provision  made  for  man  at  the 
creation,  as  needful  for  him  as  the  buoyant  air, 
the  sparkling  water,  or  the  bountiful  soil. 

"The  Son  of  Man  is  Lord  also  of  the  Sab- 
bath." This  is  an  assertion  by  our  Lord  of  his 
right  to  make  such  modifications  in  the  law  of 
the  Sabbath,  and  give  it  such  new  adjustments 
as  should  to  him  seem  best  for  the  religious  cul- 
ture of  the  race.  As  Lord  of  the  Sabbath,  he 
doubtless  had  the  power  to  set  it  entirely  aside — 
a  power  which  certainly  he  has  nowhere  exer- 
cised, either  by  himself  or  through  his  apostles. 
He  had  the  right  to  change  its  day  and  alter  or 
add  to  its  meanings — a  right  which  he  has  exer- 
cised in  giving  us  the  Lord's  day,  the  Christian 
Sabbath,  and  in  making  it  a  monument  of  re- 
demption as  well  as  of  creation  and  providence. 
Because  he  is  "Lord  of  the  Sabbath,"  we  can 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   CHRIST.  169 

rightly  call  the  Sabbath  the  Lord's  day,  and  the 
Lord's  day  our  Sabbath.  That  which  he  has 
asserted  that  he  had  the  power  to  do,  we  have 
the  right  to  assume  he  has  done,  and  w^e  have, 
moreover,  the  right  to  infer  that  the  change 
which  came  over  the  Sabbatic  institutions  in  the 
early  Christian  centuries  was  not  without  his 
will,  but  by  his  authority  and  in  fulfilment  of 
his  purpose. 

In  another  remarkable  instance  Jesus  spake 
words  which  bring  out  fully  the  positive  side  of 
the  Sabbatic  ordinance.  He  had  just  healed  the 
sick  man  at  Bethesda,  and  being  charged  with 
desecration  of  the  Sabbath,  he  replied,  "My  Fa- 
ther worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work."  John  5  117. 
The  day  is  not  rendered  sacred  by  inactivity ;  it 
is  made  holy  by  being  consecrated  to  holy  pur- 
poses. There  is  not  in  this  any  denial  of  the 
seventh-day  rest  of  God  after  his  work  of  crea- 
tion; rather  does  our  Lord  point  out  that  rest 
with  God,  and  indeed  all  true  spiritual  rest,  is 
not  merely  a  cessation  of  effort,  but  chiefly  a 
change  of  activities.  The  Father,  indeed,  rested 
from  the  physical  work  of  creation,  but  it  was 
only  to  enter  upon  his  Sabbath  emplo3^ment  of 
providence,  in  governing  and  upholding  his  crea- 
tures, and  later  of  redemption,  "  the  work  of  sal- 
vation and  of  the  moral  education  of  the  human 


170  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

race.  That  divine  labor  had  for  its  very  basis 
the  cessation  from  creative  labor  in  nature.' '  *  For 
this  interpretation  of  the  Father's  work  as  refer- 
ring to  his  unresting  activity  for  human  salva- 
tion, as  well  as  to  the  sustaining  and  governing 
of  the  world,  there  is  the  very  highest  exegetical 
authority,  t  Without  entering  upon  the  question 
of  the  method  of  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  it 
follows  clearly,  in  the  light  of  this  passage,  that 
it  chiefly  consists  in  a  change  from  ordinary 
worldly  labor  and  business  to  spiritual  activity. 
It  is  a  day  of  rest  by  being  a  day  of  worship. 
Hs  When  it  is  not  used  for  worship,  it  soon  ceases  to 
'  afford  any  real  repose.  By  the  Sabbath  man  is 
linked  to  his  Father  in  heaven;  and  to  him,  as 
to  the  Creator,  true  rest  is  found  in  the  change 
from  creative  toil  to  redemptive  and  merciful 
tasks.  By  observance  of  the  Sabbath  he  asserts 
his  spiritual  origin,  nature,  and  destiny.  As  in 
six  days  of  labor  he  follows  the  Creator  on  his 
path  of  material  effort,  so  in  the  seventh  day  he 
holds  communion  with  the  Father  of  his  spirit 
in  the  sacred  tasks  of  holy  aspiration  and  in 
benevolent  duties.  The  law  of  worship  is  higher 
than  the  law  of  rest,  and  is  its  guardian  and 
security;  while  the  law  of  love  is  higher  than 

*  Godet,  "  Commentaire  Sur  1'  Evangile  de  Saint  Jean." 
t  See  Meyer's  '*  Commentary  "  /«  /oco. 


\j 


TESTIMONY  OK  JESUS   CHRIST.  171 

either,  being  based  in  the  essential  moral  nature 
of  Deity.  The  Sabbath  is,  therefore,  never  so 
much  or  so  truly  the  Sabbath  as  when  it  is  a  day 
of  love.  In  this  passage,  again,  Jesus  has  con- 
nected the  Sabbath  with  the  beginning  of  the 
world ;  and  in  opposing  the  narrow  conception  of 
his  Jewish  adversaries,  he  strips  it  of  the  veil  of 
ceremony  and  reveals  its  inward  spirit  and  life 
as  existing  in  the  nature  of  God  and  as  a  pattern 
for  the  imitation  of  man. 

In  other  ways  Jesus  enforces  the  idea  that  the 
Sabbath  is  not  a  day  of  mere  inactivity,  but  is 
rightfully  used  for  religious  employments.  He 
reminds  his  accusers  that  by  order  of  the  law 
itself  the  priests  in  the  temple  violate  the  strict 
law  of  rest  on  the  Sabbath  by  preparation  of  the 
double  sacrifices  and  the  fresh  show-bread  re- 
quired on  that  day,  Matt.  12:5,  and  that  the 
sacred  rite  of  circumcision  was  everywhere  per- 
formed on  the  Sabbath  rather  than  deferred  be- 
yond the  eighth  day  of  legal  requirement.  John 
7:22,  23.  With  regard  to  circumcision,  indeed, 
he  reminds  them  that  it  antedated  Moses,*  and 
therefore  is  of  higher  authority  than  any  other 
requirement  of  their  religious  ritual,  and  conse- 
quently it  takes  precedence  of  the  ceremonial 
Sabbath,  and  is  not  in  discord  with  that  older 
*  See  Meyer  on  this  passage. 


172  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

law  of  the  Sabbath  which  is  not  violated,  but 
obeyed,  by  religious  acts. 

In  all  these  teachings,  Jesus,  by  striking  at 
Rabbinical  literalism  and  exaggerated  ritualism 
in  Sabbath  observance,  and  by  referring  the  Sab- 
bath to  its  original  foundation  and  setting  forth 
its  spiritual  essence,  was  preparing  the  way  for 
that  religious  revelation  which,  in  the  process  of 
years,  has  produced  the  Christian  Sabbath.  More 
subtly  than  Moses,  yet  as  really  as  the  law-giver 
in  the  wilderness,  he  was  instituting  a  new  Sab- 
bath. Such  is  the  real  effect  of  the  living  words 
of  our  great  Teacher.  He  has  confirmed  for  ever 
on  the  basis  of  its  primitive  enactment,  with 
changed  position  in  time  and  new  richness  of 
meanings,  the  law  of  the  abiding  Sabbath. 


APOSTOLIC  TESTIMONY.  173 


CHAPTER   II. 

APOSTOLIC  TESTIMONY. 

"  Teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have 
commanded  you:  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world."  matt.  28 :  20. 

"  And  they  continued  steadfastly  in  the  apostles'  doctrine 
and  fellowship."  acts  2 :  42. 

"Christ  said  not  to  his  first  conventicle, 
'  Go  forth  and  preach  impostures  to  the  world,' 
But  gave  them  truth  to  build  on ;  and  the  sound 
Was  mighty  on  their  lips ;  nor  needed  they, 
Beside  the  gospel,  other  spear  or  shield 
To  aid  them  in  their  warfare  for  the  faith." 

DANTE. 

Jesus  Christ  did  not  personally  carry  out 
his  own  purposes  into  organized  forms.  His 
public  ministry  lasted  but  a  little  more  than 
three  years.  In  that  brief  time  he  occupied  him- 
self, not  in  founding  institutions,  nor  in  writing 
a  code  of  morals  and  doctrine,  but  in  instructing 
the  twelve  men  who  were  to  be  the  authorized 
interpreters  of  his  will  and  mission  to  the  world. 
To  them  he  gave  full  authority  for  that  w^ork, 
including  absolute  power  both  of  teaching  and 
administration.  He  promised  for  their  guidance 
the  presence  and  assistance  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 


1/4  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

Every  word  they  have  spoken  to  the  church,  and 
every  institution  they  have  founded,  are  there- 
fore backed  by  his  sovereignty,  and  come  to  us 
with  the  same  binding  force  of  obligation  as  if 
delivered  directly  by  himself.  So  much  at  least 
is  implied  in  the  many  promises  and  injunctions 
given  to  them  before  his  ascension.  On  this  di- 
vine commission  of  the  apostles  is  based  the  doc- 
trine of  their  inspiration.  This  fact  clothes  the 
teachings  of  the  New  Testament  outside  of  the 
words  of  Jesus  with  an  authority  like  that  with 
which  those  are  invested. 

And  we  find  full  harmony  between  the  words 
of  our  Lord  and  apostolic  teaching  and  usage. 
There  is,  however,  this  difference :  the  apostle 
Paul  is  more  positive  and  sweeping  in  his  con- 
demnation of  the  ceremonial  Sabbath,  going  to 
the  length  of  declaring  the  Jewish  institution  not 
binding  upon  Christians.  The  reason  of  this  is, 
undoubtedly,  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  ex- 
tension of  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles  had  intensi- 
fied the  struggle  with  Jewish  ritualism.  The  bat- 
tle for  soul-liberty  had  to  be  fought  out,  and  in 
the  course  of  it  hard  blows  were  struck  at  the 
*  Sabbath  so  far  as  it  was  connected  with  the  **  beg- 
garly elements"  of  a  carnal  and  temporal  econo- 
my. And  this  was  the  less  likely  to  be  miscon- 
strued as  applying  to  the  eternal  law  of  the  Sab- 


APOSTOLIC  TESTIMONY.  1 75 

bath  itself,  because  already,  as  will  be  shown 
hereafter,  the  "first  day  of  the  week,"  marked 
by  Christ's  resurrection  "the  Lord's  day,"  had 
become  of  common  observance  and  was  gradually 
succeeding  to  its  proper  inheritance  of  the  inward 
meaning  of  the  abiding  Sabbath  delivered  by  the 
Creator  and  confirmed  by  the  Redeemer. 

I.  The  yeivish  Sabbath  is  definitely  abolished  by 
apostolic  authority. 

There  seems  to  have  been  a  strenuous  effort 
made  to  impose  on  Gentile  converts  to  Christian- 
ity certain  Jewish  observances — preeminently  cir- 
cumcision, the  distinction  of  meats  as  clean  and 
unclean,  and  the  keeping  of  festivals.  This  at- 
tempt was  earnestly  and  successfully  resisted  by 
the  apostles.  The  whole  temple  ritual  and  all 
the  external  ordinances  of  Judaism  were  but  types 
of  Christ  and  his  offices.  In  him  they  were  ful- 
filled, and  with  that  realization  of  their  substance 
these  shadows  were  to  pass  away.  Sacrificial 
fires,  holy  rites,  and  religious  festivals,  all  found 
their  consummation  in  the  life  and  death  of  Christ. 
His  body  is  the  true  temple,  he  is  the  eternal 
priest,  and  his  death  the  one  perpetual  sacrifice. 
The  Christian's  circumcision  is  a  "circumcision 
made  without  hands,"  Col.  2:11;  to  him  "re- 
mains a  Sabbath-keeping,"  Heb.  4  :  9,  which  is  a 
rest  from  sin  and  in  faith,  ceasing  from  the  works 

Abiding  Sabbath.  12 


176  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

of  the  law  as  a  ground  of  justification.  No  wonder 
that  the  apostles  could  so  little  tolerate  the  proposed 
continuance  of  the  bondage  from  which  Christ 
had  set  them  free.  Gal.  5:1.  Had  he  not  taken 
away  *'the  handwriting  of  ordinances"  against 
them  and  ^'nailed  it  to  his  cross"?  Col.  2  114. 
All  the  splendid  but  burdensome  forms  of  Hebrew 
worship  had  meaning  only  as  they  centred  in  him, 
and  with  him  they  died,  not  to  be  raised  with  him, 
for  he  rose  "in  the  spirit."  i  Pet.  3  :  18  ;  Rom. 
I  :  4.  To  continue  these  ordinances  would  be 
more  than,  in  Canon  Farrar's  phrase,  "to  hold 
up  superfluous  candles  to  the  sun;"  it  would  be, 
in  very  fact,  to  deny  the  Lord  and  his  work.* 
"Christ  is  become  of  none  effect  to  you,  whoso- 
ever of  you  would  be  justified  by  the  law."  Gal. 
5  : 4.  The  wall  of  partition  between  Jew  and 
Gentile  has  been  broken  down  and  abolished  in 
the  flesh  of  Christ.  Eph.  2  :  14,  15.  The  Chris- 
tian believer  is  so  identified  with  his  Saviour  that 
he  has  died  with  him,  and  so  has  been  released 
from  those  "rudiments  of  the  world,"  Col.  2  :  20, 
embodied  in  the  Mosaic  ritual.  It  is  impossible 
to  overstate  the  sense  of  freedom  which  must  have 

*  It  would  be  well  for  those  Christians  who  are  endeavor- 
ing to  reinstate  the  Jewish  Sabbath  to  take  this  reflection  to 
heart.  Let  us  beware  lest,  by  preserving  the  type,  we  cancel 
in  thought  the  work  of  redemption.  He  who  prefers  to  be 
under  the  law  in  any  measure  has,  in  so  far,  rejected  grace. 


y 


APOSTOLIC  TESTIMONY.  1 77 

come  to  the  early  church  with  regard  to  the  ordi- 
nances of  the  ceremonial  law,  and  which  espe- 
cially glows  in  the  fearless  words  of  the  great 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  Salvation  in  Christ  im- 
plied the  breaking  of  legal  shackles  which  had 
endured  for  ages.  These  things  had  served  their 
purpose,  but  now  they  must  vanish  in  the  bla^e 
of  that  supreme  reality  which  they  had  only  pre- 
figured. 

With  the  ceremonial  system  vanished  the  Jew-V 
ish  Sabbath.  It  had  only  a  local  and  temporal 
meaning.  It  commemorated  the  deliverance  of 
Israel  from  Egyptian  bondage  and  foreshadowed  a 
greater  deliverance.  About  it  had  gathered  ob- 
servances, penalties,  rules,  and  traditions  which 
were  only  the  accidents  of  its  existence.  The 
promised  Deliverer  at  last  had  come,  bringing  to 
the  weary  and  heavy-laden  the  soul-rest  which 
the  Sabbath  of  Israel  had  prophesied,  and  now  it 
must  be  cast  off  as  a  worn-out  garment.  *'  Let  no 
.man  therefore  judge  you  in  meat  or  in  drink,  or  in 
respect  of  a  holy  [feast]  day,  or  a  new  moon,  or  a 
Sabbath  day:  which  are  a  shadow  of  the  things 
to  come;  but  the  body  is  of  Christ."  Col.  2  :  16, 
17.  This  passage  with  one  stroke  sweeps  away 
the  whole  list  of  Jewish  festivals  and  declares 
them  to  be  no  longer  obligatory  upon  the  Chris- 
tian conscience.    The  w^hole  passage  with  its  con- 


178  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

text  forbids  the  explanation  that  Paul  was  only 
attacking  a  particular  manner  of  observing  the 
day;  and  that  he  is  not  referring  to  other  sacred 
days  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  they  are  men- 
tioned in  the  same  passage  under  other  heads. 
The  moral  requirement  of  a  day  of  worship  is  not 
in  question  here;  but  it  is  the  special  institution 
of  the  particular  day,  with  its  particular  mean- 
ings as  related  to  Hebrew  history,  and  its  pecu- 
liar observances,  which  is  done  away  in  Christ. 
Indeed,  the  letter  of  the  law  must  be  abolished  if 
the  true  spirit  of  it,  older  than  Hebrew  history 
and  not  ending  with  the  Mosaic  ritual,  is  to  live 
at  all.  Some  dawn  of  the  Lord's  day  is  in  the 
sky  as  we  read  these  words^  in  the  light  of  the 
whole  revelation  of  God. 

There  are  two  other  passages  in  the  writings 
of  Paul  which  bear  directly  on  this  point.  The 
first  is  Gal.  4 :  10:  *'  Ye  observe  days  and  months, 
and  times  [seasons]  and  years. ''  The  apostle  here 
condemns  the  keeping  of  the  stated  holy  days  of 
the  Jews,  and  strikes  at  all  that  externalism  which 
is  enslaved  to  any  portion  of  space  or  any  moment 
of  time.  There  are  no  little  pieces  of  glorified 
duration  which  have  in  themselves  any  peculiar 
sanctity.  The  believer  should  be  delivered  from 
the  bondage  of  any  such  superstition.  Surely  the 
advocates  of  a  seventh-day  Sabbath  in  these  later 


APOSTOUC  TESTIMONY.  179 

years  have  not  felt  the  full  force  of  that  evangel- 
ical freedom  which  Paul  enjoyed  and  preached. 
It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  the  apos- 
tle was  opposing  the  right  and  liberty  of  the 
church  to  appoint  special  periods  of  time  for  spe- 
cial and  separate  duties;  for  to  these  very  churches 
of  Galatia  he  first  gave  the  command  which  he 
reaffirms  to  the  Corinthians,  i  Cor.  16  :  i,  2,  to 
appropriate  the  first  day  of  the  week  to  the  benevo- 
lent contributions  of  the  church.  The  whole  force 
of  his  denunciation  of  the  observance  of  ' '  times 
and  seasons"  is  directed  against  not  the  special 
moral  and  religious  use  of  particular  portions  of 
time,  but  the  legalistic  spirit  which  would  cling 
to  the  Jewish^  festivals  and  fas.ts  as  a  means  of  sal- 
vation, and  which  was  a  hindrance  to  faith  in 
Christ.     Gal.  5  : 1-14. 

Another  passage  to  the  same  effect  is  Romans 
14:5,  6:  "One  man  esteemeth  one  day  above  an- 
other; another  esteemeth  every  day  alike.  Let 
every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind. 
He  that  regardeth  the  day,  regardeth  it  unto  the 
lyord;  and  he  that  regardeth  not  the  day,  to  the 
Lord  he  doth  not  regard  it."*      This  does  not 

*  The  latter  clause  of  this  text,  "  and  he  that  regardeth 
not  the  day,"  etc.,  is  undoubtedly  an  interpolation.  The  re- 
vision of  1881  has  very  properly  omitted  it.  This  does  not 
change  in  any  way  the  use  made  of  it  above,  although  it 
spoils  many  a  zealous  anti-Sabbatarian  argument.    An  in- 


l8o  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

preclude  the  proper  consecration  of  one  day  in 
seven  to  holy  uses;  but  it  does  declare  the  free- 
dom of  the  Christian  from  the  requirements  of 
the  Mosaic  dispensation.  It  is  a  declaration  of 
evangelical  independence,  and  not  a-ffihilistic 
abolition  of  all  law^  In  declaring  the  liberty  of 
the  church  in  the  matter  of  meats  and  drinks,  he 
does  not  thereby  abolish  eating  and  drinking, 
but  rather  establishes  those  cheerful  duties  on  a 
broader  and  more  spiritual  basis;  so  in  asserting 
Christian  freedom  from  the  "day,"  he  has  not 
nullified  the  abiding  law  of  the  Sabbath,  but 
rather  given  it  a  new  life  in  the  spirit. 

Such  is  the  relation  of  apostolic  teaching  to 
the  Jewish  Sabbath.  The  yoke  of  the  fathers, 
with  its  crushing  weight  of  sacerdotal  require- 
ment, was  cast  off.  The  galling  fetters  of  tradi- 
tion were  broken,  and  for  ever  was  the  infant 
church  delivered  from  "statutes  that  were  not 
good,  and  judgments  whereby  they  should  not 
live.'*  Ezek.  20:25.  But  the  inspired  caution 
with  which  this  was  done  must  be  marked  as 
well.  So  fully  has  the  language  been  guarded 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  that  the  strictest  interpretation 
cannot  thereby  justify  Sabbath  violation;  nor,  on 

stance  may  be  found  in  the  dangerous  sermon  of  F.  W.  Rob- 
ertson on  this  text  which  is  wholly  built  up  on  the  spurious 
passage  in  question. 


APOSTOLIC  TESTIMONY.  l8l 

the  otlier  hand,  can  the  stoutest  conservatism 
rescue  the  Jewish  Sabbath  from  its  destructive 
effects.  Paul's  words,  while  more  radical  than 
those  of  Jesus,  as  was  required  by  the  different 
characters  of  their  contest,  only  carry  out  the 
Lord's  idea.  By  striking  down  the  form  they 
have  exalted  the  spirit.  They  have  cleared  the 
way  for  a  true  Sabbath  after  the  creative  pattern, 
but  enriched  by  redemptive  ideas. 

2.  TJie  apostles^  by  confirming  the  moral  law^ 
have  enforced  the  obligation  of  the  abiding  Sabbath, 

It  is  sometimes  urged  that  the  gospel  dispen- 
sation has  done  away  with  the  obligation  of  the 
whole  law;  that  w^e  are  not  under  the  law,  but 
under  grace.  It  has  already  been  shown  that 
Christ  fulfils  the  moral  law  in  a  very  different 
manner  from  that  of  his  fulfilment  of  the  ceremo- 
nial law:  the  latter  he  embodies  in  his  own  offi- 
ces, and  so  annuls  it;  but  the  former  he  makes 
honorable  through  his  perfect  obedience.  And 
this  is  the  substance  of  the  apostolic  teaching. 
*'Do  we  then  make  void  the  law  through  faith? 
God  forbid:  yea,  we  establish  the  law."  Rom. 
3:31.  The  very  object  of  redemption  in  Christ 
was  that  the  "righteousness  of  the  law  should  be 
fulfilled  in  us."  Rom.  8:4.  By  positive  declara- 
tions such  as  these,  by  minute  moral  injunctions 
to  the  churches  under  their  care,  the  apostles  of 


l82  TIIK    ABIDING   SABBATH. 

Jesus  Christ,  as  lie  had  done  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  reenacted  for  the  church  the  whole  Dec- 
alogue in  its  universal  meanings.  And  in  this 
reenactment  it  does  not  mean  less,  but  more. 
The  law  of  chastity  means  inner  purity  as  well 
as  freedom  from  bodily  defilement ;  the  law 
against  murder  implies  loving  relations  with  all 
mankind,  as  well  as  guiltlessness  of  the  bloody 
deed;  so  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  demands,  under 
the  gospel,  not  simple  physical  inaction,  but  to 
be  "in  the  Spirit  on  the  lyord's  day." 

So  far,  therefore,  from  the  moral  law  being 
ignored  or  cancelled  by  apostolic  teaching,  it  is 
endowed  with  a  larger  significance.  By  the 
great  generalization  of  Jesus,  the  moral  law  was 
summed  up  in  love  to  God  and  man,  and  thus  it 
becomes  more  than  an  outward  rule;  it  is  an 
inner  inspiration.  * '  I^ove  is  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law,"  exclaims  Paul,  Rom.  13:10;  and  so  far 
from  this  making  the  law  less  obligatory,  love 
is  to  be  regarded  as  an  always-binding,  never- 
paid  debt.  ' '  Owe  no  man  anything  but  to  love 
one  another."  Rom.  13:8.  The  law  does  not 
lose,  but  gain,  in  sanctity  and  authority  when  it 
is  thus  translated  into  the  forms  of  life.  The 
Father's  rule  does  not  lose  its  authority  because 
the  motive  of  obedience  is  changed  from  fear  to 
love;   rather,  with   increasing  love  and   knowl- 


APOSTOLIC   TESTIMONY.  1 83 

edge,  does  the  child  feel  all  the  stronger  the 
sweet  constraint  of  the  paternal  will.  Obedience 
is  not  less  obligatory  because  it  brings  no  bond- 
age. ' '  Ought ' '  coexists  with  ' '  love  to, ' '  as  sure- 
ly as  with  "must."  The  law  which  is  "holy 
and  just  and  good"  cannot  be  set  aside.  The 
difference  between  legalism  and  evangelical  free- 
dom consists  chiefly  in  this:  that  obedience,  im- 
possible before,  is  made  possible  through  the  in- 
ward power  of  a  new  motive.  The  loyal  devo- 
tion of  a  child  takes  the  place  of  the  coerced 
conformity  of  a  servant.  That  the  terror  of  the 
commandment  has  been  transformed  into  a  bene- 
diction does  not  relax  the  obligation,  but  inten- 
sifies it.  The  moral  law  is  glorified,  and  not 
repealed,  by  the  new  dispensation. 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  the  Sabbath 
is  a  part  of  the  moral  law;  it  has  the  mark  of 
universality  as  coexistent  with  man;  it  embod- 
ies a  spiritual  significance;  it  has  a  reasonable 
basis  in  the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  needs  of 
man;  it  was  incorporated  in  the  Decalogue,  the 
outline  of  moral  law  given  to  Israel ;  it  was  en- 
forced by  such  threatened  penalties  for  violation 
and  promised  blessings  for  observance  as  could  not 
have  been  attached  to  a  merely  ceremonial  ordi- 
nance; and  Jesus  confirmed  these  historical  and 
rational  proofs  by  his  own  example  and  teachings. 


184  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

Being,  therefore,  a  part  of  the  moral  law,  it 
is  established  as  an  apostolic  institution  by  every 
word  and  phrase  in  which  the  apostles  assert  that 
law  to  be  still  binding  on  men.  The  proof  is  as 
complete  as  the  nature  of  the  case  admits. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  account  for  the  complete 
silence  of  the  New  Testament  so  far  as  any  ex- 

/  plicit  command  for  the  Sabbath  or  definite  rules 
for  its  observance  are  concerned.     No  argument 

I  against  the  Sabbath  can  be  based  on  the  absence 
of  such  positive  regulations.     The  conditions  un- 

(  der  which  the  early  Christian  church  existed 
w^ere  not  favorable  for  their  announcement.     Al- 

/  though  the  choicest  blessings  of  the  day  come  to 
the  individual  life,  yet  its  perfect  observance  is 
a  social  matter  and  depends  on  social  arrange- 

'  ments.  The  early  church,  a  struggling  minority 
composed  of  the  poorest  people,  could  not  have 
(  instituted  the  Christian  Sabbath  in  its  full  force 
of  meaning.  The  ruling  influences  of  govern- 
ment and  society  were  against  them.  The  Chris- 
tian slave  could  not  refuse  to  work  for  his  heathen 
master  even  on  the  Lord's  day.  There  were  still 
the  conservative  tendencies  of  Jewish  Christian- 
ity to  be  overcome.  Nothing  more,  however, 
was  needed  than  the  authority  of  the  creative 
ordinance  as  announced  by  inspiration,  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Decalogue,  and  the  confirmation  of 


APOSTOI.IC  TESTIMONY.  185 

the  moral  content  of  the  law  by  Jesus  Christ,  to 
so  place  the  Sabbath  in  the  doctrines  and  faith 
of  Christianity  that,  under  the  administration  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  as  the  church  gained  in  numbers 
and  influence,  so  did  the  Lord's  day  gain  in  sanc- 
tity and  due  observance.  As  we  shall  see  here- 
after, legislation  on  the  question  did  come  at  the 
very  moment  when  it  was  possible  to  make  it 
effective.  For  a  considerable  time  the  Jewish 
Sabbath  and  the  Lord's  day  coexisted,  side  by 
side,  in  the  church;  but  in  its  growing  life  the 
former  naturally  faded  away  with  the  other  effete 
relics  of  Judaism  which  for  a  time  lingered  in 
the  church;  and  the  latter  more  and  more  super- 
seded the  former  in  embodying  the  real  meanings 
of  the  abiding  Sabbath  of  the  primal  and  moral 
law.  This  will  appear  more  fully  in  the  history 
of  the  Lord's  day. 

No  trace  of  any  authoritative  observance  of 
the  Jewish  Sabbath  by  Christians,  however,  can 
be  found  in  the  apostolic  writings.  If  in  many 
cases  the  apostles  preached  on  that  day,  it  was 
because  their  mission  was  first  to  Israel,  and  on 
that  day  they  found  the  people  assembled  in  the 
synagogues.  So  far  as  is  revealed,  the  apostolic 
declaration  of  its  non-requirement  was  indorsed 
by  apostolic  practice.  As  certainly  as  historical 
proof  can  be  adduced  for  any  fact,  so  certainly  is 


l86  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

it  demonstrated  that  the  Sabbath  of  the  law  was 
abolished  by  apostolic  authority,  in  accordance 
with  the  developed  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ. 
But  although  the  Sabbath  of  the  law  ceased,  the 
law  of  the  Sabbath  is  abiding;  and  it  is  in  the 
highest  degree  probable  that  the  Lord's  day 
which  embodied  its  spirit  was  instituted  by  the 
immediate  authority  of  the  apostles,  and  there- 
fore by  the  supreme  authority  of  their  Master 
Jesus  Christ. 


ORIGIN   OF  TH£:   I^ORD'S   DAY.  1 87 

CHAPTER  III. 

ORIGIN  OF  THJ:   I^ORD'S  DAY. 

"  Enthroned  in  thy  sovereign  sphere, 
Thou  shedd'st  thy  Hght  on  all  the  year; 
Sundays  by  thee  more  glorious  break, 
An  Easter-day  in  every  week."  keble. 

"Welcome,  happy  morning!  age  to  age  shall  say; 
Hell  to-day  is  vanquished ;  heaven  is  won  to-day ! 
Lo,  the  Dead  is  living,  God  for  ever  more! 
Him,  their  true  Creator,  all  his  works  adore." 

VENANTIUS  FORTUNATUS. 

In  the  emphasis  which  Christ  placed  on  the 
positive  spiritual  side  of  Sabbath  observance  as 
distinct  from  its  temporal  elements,  and  in  his 
claim  of  Lordship  over  the  Sabbath,  the  founda- 
tion was  fully  laid  for  its  new  institution  as  the 
Lord's  day.  • 

But  the  ceremonial  law  could  not  fully  termi- 
nate except  by  its  awful  fulfilment  on  Calvary. 
All  the  rites  and  types  ordained  through  Moses 
had  full  title  of  endurance  until  Christ  consum- 
mated their  meaning  and  thus  ended  them  for 
ever.  In  the  death  of  Christ  perished,  essential- 
ly, the  Jewish  ritual:  the  veil  of  the  temple  was 
rent  in  twain,  for  temple,  sacrifices,  and  ordinan- 
ces have  no  more  meanins::  all  is  embodied  in 


I88  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

him,  and  atonement  means  no  more  a  ritual  act 
performed  before  the  mercy-seat,  but  has  become 
a  mighty  fact  reali2;ed  in  the  Holy  of  Holies  of 
the  highest  heavens.  With  every  other  symboli- 
cal ordinance  of  Israel,  the  Sabbath  of  the  law- 
went  into  the  sepulchre  wdth  Jesus  Christ;  but 
its  moral  spirit  and  meaning  rose  with  him,  as 
the  Lord's  day,  on  which,  after  his  Sabbath  rest 
in  the  grave,  he  rose  again,  the  author  of  a  new 
spiritual  creation. 

It  is  easy  to  comprehend  how  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath must  almost  at  once  have  lost  its  hold  on 
the  affections  of  the  disciples.  That  day  of  dread 
and  gloom  on  w'hich  their  Master  lay  in  the  tomb 
could  not  be  any  more  to  them  a  "delight."  In 
the  most  powerful  manner  possible  those  feelings 
of  festal  gladness  and  holy  joy  inseparable  from 
the  true  idea  of  the  Sabbath  w^ere  for  ever  discon- 
nected from  the  seventh  day.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  such  observance  of  the  seventh  day  as  lin- 
gered in  the  church  took  the  form  largely  of  a  fast 
rather  than  of  a  joyous  festival.*  It  henceforth 
referred  more  to  the  death  of  the  Lord  than  to  the 
Hebrew  institution.  And  by  the  most  natural 
revulsion  of  feeling  all  that  was  lost  from  the  sev- 
enth day  was  transferred  to  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  increased  by  the  new  thought  of  redemp- 
*  See  chapters  on  **  History  of  the  Lord's  Day." 


ORIGIN   OF  THE   I^ORD'S   DAY.  1 89 

tion  through  a  risen  lyord.  Not  only  is  there 
nothing  wonderful  in  this  transfer,  but  it  would 
have  been  truly  marvellous  had  it  not  taken 
place.  Henceforth  not  the  day  of  seeming  defeat 
and  of  the  sealed  sepulchre,  but  the  day  of  the 
manifestation  of  the  Saviour's  glorious  triumph, 
is  the  holy  day  of  the  church,  its  chief  day  of  re- 
ligious convocation  and  social  worship. 

"  Love's  redeeming  work  is  done ; 
Fought  the  fight,  the  battle  won;" 

and  because  he  has  finished  his  work,  he  has,  as 
did  his  Father  after  the  first  creation,  entered  into 
his  rest,  as  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  testifies. 
Heb.  4:10.  The  idea  of  completion,  symbolized 
by  the  number  seven  and  embodied  in  the  Sab- 
bath as  the  memorial  of  a  finished  creation,  is 
transferred  to  the  Lord's  day,  the  monument  of  a 
finished  redemption  and  the  prophecy  of  the  gen- 
eral resurrection  which  is  the  consummation  of 
all  time's  history  and  the  dawn  of  eternity. 

The  Lord^s  day  is  the  only  day  which  carries  in  it 
the  meaning  and  the  prophecy  of  the  Sabbath  of  eter- 
7zity.     It  is  the  abiding  Sabbath, 

It  was  on  the  ''first  day  of  the  week"  that 
the  Saviour  rose.  It  is  remarkable  that  this 
phrase,  "first  day  of  the  week,"  marks  the  only 
case  in  which  any  day  of  the  week  is  distin- 
guished from  the  rest  in  Scripture  by  its  number 


190  the:  abiding  sabbath. 

excepting  the  seventh  day  or  Jewish  Sabbath. 
Bight  times  the  term  is  used  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, five  of  the  instances  occurring  in  connec- 
tion with  the  account  of  the  Lord's  resurrection. 
Other  days  have  no  distinctive  title,  save  only  the 
sixth  day,  which  is  the  ' '  Sabbath  eve  "  or  "  day 
of  preparation."  The  first  day  is,  therefore, 
placed  in  such  significant  relations  with  the  sev- 
enth day  as  to  impress  upon  it  a  meaning  which 
cannot  be  disregarded.  There  is  placed  upon  it 
such  a  distinctive  mark  that  it  cannot  henceforth 
be  merged  with  common  days.  Has  not  the  res- 
urrection of  the  Sabbath's  Lord  given  a  Sab- 
bath's consecration  to  the  Lord's  day?  Upon  it 
is  set  the  seal  of  his  crowning  miracle.  No  day 
of  the  week  can  claim  an  equal  glory. 

After  the  several  appearances  of  the  Saviour 
on  the  day  of  his  resurrection  there  is  no  recorded 
appearance  until  a  week  later,  when  the  first  day 
is  again  honored  by  the  Master.  John  20:26. 
The  exact  mention  of  the  time,  which  is  not 
usual  even  with  John's  exactness,  very  evidently 
implies  that  there  already  attached  a  special  sig- 
nificance to  the  ' '  first  day  of  the  week ' '  at  the 
time  when  this  Gospel  was  written.  These  re- 
peated appearances  of  Jesus  upon  the  first  day 
doubtless  furnished  the  first  sugfcrestion  of  the 
practice  which  very  quickly  sprang  up   in  the 


ORIGIJsT   OF   THE    lord's    DAY.  I91 

churcli  of  employing  that  day  for  religious  assem- 
bly and  worship.  On  what  day  could  they  so 
certainly  expect  to  meet  the  Lord  in  spirit  as  on 
that  day  which  again  and  again  he  signalized 
by  his  visible  appearance  to  them  after  his  resur- 
rection ? 

This  impression  must  have  been  strongly  in- 
tensified by  the  miraculous  occurrences  of  Pente- 
cost, if  that  festival  fell,  as  we  think  probable, 
on  the  first  day  of  the  week — a  view  maintained 
by  the  early  tradition  of  the  church  and  by  many 
eminent  scholars.  *     On  that  day,  which  has  fitly 

*  Some  difference  of  opinion  has  existed  as  to  the  proper 
computation  of  the  day  of  Pentecost — some  reckoning  it  from 
the  15th  Nisan,  or  Passover,  and  others  from  the  Sabbath 
of  the  Passover  week.  In  the  latter  case,  Pentecost  would 
invariably  fall  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  The  former 
method  of  computation  is,  however,  to  be  accepted  as  the 
correct  one.  In  that  case,  the  determination  of  the  day  on 
which  Pentecost  fell  in  the  year  of  the  crucifixion  is  depend- 
ent on  the  view  taken  in  regard  to  the  day  of  the  crucifix- 
ion. This  is  regarded  by  many  scholars,  and  those  of  the 
ver>'  highest  authority,  as  the  14th  Nisan.  As  this  was  there- 
fore the  sixth  day  of  the  week,  the  succeeding  first  day  of 
the  week  coincides,  according  to  this  view,  with  the  day  on 
which  the  omer  was  offered,  from  which  seven  weeks  were 
reckoned  until  Pentecost  (Lev.  23 :  15),  which  would  thus 
fall  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  That  the  day  of  offering 
the  omer  was  the  day  of  Christ's  resurrection  gains  some 
support  from  the  passage  which  this  fact  seems  to  have  sug- 
gested, "  Now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead  and  become  the 
first-fruits  of  them  that  slept."  i  Cor.  15 :  20.  If,  however,  the 
opposite,  but  much  less  strongly  supported,  view  is  taken, 

AUidiug  Sabbath.  I  3 


192  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

been  called  the  birthday  of  the  church,  began 
those  spiritual  endowments  which  prove  that 
the  ascended  Lord  is  indeed  enthroned  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  Father  and  from  that  place  of 
power  is  conferring  gifts  on  men.  The  day  marked 
by  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  and  by  repeated 
appearances  of  the  Risen  One  in  bodily  form, 
and  also  crowned,  as  we  believe,  by  his  spiritual 
manifestation  through  the  Holy  Ghost,  needed 
no  other  indorsement  of  its  character  and  re- 
quired no  other  warrant  for  its  observance. 

Not  the  seventh  day  of  a  rejected,  executed, 
and  entombed  Jesus,  but  the  first  day  of  a  risen, 
triumphant,  and  glorified  Christ,  is  henceforth  the 
festal  day  of  joyful  praise  and  thankful  worship. 
Although  the  disciples  had  the  promise  of  the 
Master,  ' '  Lo,  I  am  with  you  al way , ' '  and  although 
his  pledge  was  to  meet  at  any  time  and  place  with 
the  two  or  three  then  and  there  gathered  together, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  they  soon  came  to  special- 
ly seek  his  presence  on  that  day  which  specially 
he  had  distinguished.  Such  was  doubtless  the 
origin  of  the  custom,  which  already  prevailed  in 
apostolic  times,  of  gathering  for  worship  and  eel- 
placing  the  crucifixion  on  the  15th  Nisan,  the  fiftieth  succeed- 
ing day,  or  Pentecost,  must  of  course  have  fallen  on  a  Sabbath. 
As  to  the  day  of  the  crucifixion,  see  Meyer  on  John  18:28, 
and  the  learned  excursus  of  Godet,  in  his  "  Commentary  on 
John."    See  also  Meyer  on  Acts  2  :  i. 


ORIGIN   OK  THE   lord's   DAY.  1 93 

ebrating  the  Lord's  Supper  together  on  the  first 
day  of  the  week. 

And  are  we  not  authorized  to  conclude  that 
the  apostles  were  under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  this  distinction  of  this  day?  We  read  in 
the  Gospel  of  John,  ch.  16:13-15,  the  promise  of 
the  Lord  to  his  apostles  that,  after  his  departure, 
the  Holy  Ghost  should  "guide"  them  "into  all 
truth,"  should  "glorify"  him,  "taking  of"  his 
things  and  "showing  them"  to  his  disciples. 
May  we  not  include  in  the  particulars  of  this 
truth,  and  among  these  things  of  Christ,  an  in- 
stitution of  whose  existence  we  can  find  traces  in 
the  apostolic  records  and  writings,  which  specially 
glorifies  the  Lord  as  the  memorial  of  his  resurrec- 
tion, and  to  which  the  same  John,  by  the  most 
obvious  and  general  interpretation  of  his  words, 
elsewhere  gives  the  name  of  ''^  the  Lord^'s  day''^? 
Rev.  1:10. 

The  infrequent  occurrence  of  any  mention  of 
the  Lord's  day  and  its  observance  in  the  New 
Testament  is  fairly  parallel  w^ith  the  rare  traces 
of  the  Sabbath  in  the  historical  books  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Perhaps  nothing  is  so  unlikely  to 
get  into  history  as  a  frequently  recurring  custom 
such  as  this.  The  existence  of  such  customs  is 
quietly  assumed  by  the  chronicler,  and  his  refer- 
ences to  them  will  generally  be  incidental  and 


194  I'HE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

undesigned.  Indeed,  it  may  safely  be  asserted 
that  several  of  the  notices  of  the  Sabbath  of  Israel 
found  in  the  Old  Testament  history  are  due 
entirely  to  irregularities  in  its  observance,  such 
as  called  forth  the  exhortations  and  denuncia- 
tions of  the  prophets. 

The  most  distinct  reference  to  the  Christian 
use  of  the  first  day  of  the  week  is  that  found  in 
Acts  ao:;:  "And  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
when  the  disciples  came  together  to  break  bread, 
Paul  preached  unto  them."  There  is  unques- 
tionably assumed  here  a  practice  of  coming  to- 
gether for  the  purpose  of  ' '  breaking  bread. "  It  is 
uncertain  whether  this  ' '  breaking  bread ' '  refers 
primarily  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  or  to  the  agapcs 
or  love-feasts  which  were  common  in  the  early 
church;  nor  does  it  much  matter,  for  it  is  most 
probable  that  the  Lord's  Supper  was  usually  cel- 
ebrated in  connection  with  the  love-feast,  and  in 
either  case  the  practice  of  ecclesiastical  assem- 
blage is  established.  There  is  no  hint  that  the 
church  at  Troas  was  called  together  by  Paul  for 
purposes  of  instruction,  but  the  language  clearly 
implies  that  the  apostle  availed  himself  of  the 
occasion  brought  about  by  the  custom  of  assem- 
blage on  the  first  day  of  the  week  to  preach  to 
the  people.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  he  abode 
seven  days  at  Troas,  and  that  this  first  day  of  the 


ORIGIN   OK  the:   lord's   DAY.  195 

week  was  the  last  day  of  liis  stay,  as  if  it  had 
been  his  design  to  tarry  long  enough  at  Troas  to 
join  with  the  disciples  at  that  place  on  the  day 
of  public  fellowship  and  worship.  A  similar  stay 
of  exactly  seven  days  is  noted  in  the  next  chapter 
as  occurring  at  Tyre,  possibly  with  the  same  in- 
tent. Acts  21:4,  5.  Here,  then,  is  a  plain  record 
of  the  custom  of  assemblage  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week,  less  than  thirty  years  after  the  resurrection. 
The  language  is  just  what  would  be  used  in  such 
a  case,  and  would  not  be  appropriate  to  another 
state  of  facts. 

Another  incidental  allusion  to  the  religious 
use  of  the  day — an  allusion  none  the  less  valuable/. 
because  incidental — is  the  direction  of  Paul  in  i 
Cor.  16:1,  2:  "Now  concerning  the  collection  for 
the  saints,  as  I  have  given  order  to  the  churches 
of  Galatia,  even  so  do  ye.  Upon  the  first  day  of 
the  week  let  every  one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store 
as  God  hath  prospered  him,  that  there  be  no  gath- 
erings when  I  come. ' '  Among  the  religious  du- 
ties to  which  the  day  was  consecrated  was  that  of 
almsgiving.  Such  was  a  most  appropriate  use  of 
the  day,  and  had  its  precedent  in  the  free-will  of- 
ferings made  on  Jewish  holy  days.  That  this  lay- 
ing in  store  did  not  mean  a  simple  hoarding  of 
gifts  by  each  one  in  his  own  house,  is  emphatic- 
ally shown  by  the  reason  alleged  for  the  injunc- 


196  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

tion,  "that  there  be  no  gatherings"  (i.  e.,  "col- 
lections," the  same  word  used  in  the  first  verse) 
*  *  when  I  come. ' '  The  Corinthians  were  on  that 
day  to  deposit  their  alms  in  a  common  treasury. 
If  the  gifts  had  had  to  be  collected  from  house  to 
house,  the  very  object  of  the  apostle's  direction 
would  have  failed  to  be  secured.  We  must  con- 
clude, then,  that  these  collections  were  made 
statedly,  at  the  meetings  for  public  worship 
which  occurred  on  the  first  day  of  the  week. 

It  is,  perhaps,  not  going  too  far  to  suggest 
that  the  shrewdness  of  the  apostle  appears  in  this 
plan  for  systematic  benevolence.  He  well  knew 
that  the  giving  which  is  connected  with  religious 
worship  is  by  the  very  act  of  worship  stimulated 
to  a  larger  liberality ;  therefore  to  the  worship  of 
praise  and  prayer  on  the  Lord's  day  was  appro- 
priately added  the  worship  by  gifts.  It  is  further 
to  be  noted  that  the  apostle  declares  this  custom 
to  be  already  established  among  the  churches  of 
Galatia. 

There  are  not  a  few  passages  which  can  be 
quoted  in  proof  of  the  habit  of  stated  assemblage 
in  the  apostolic  church.  A  well-known  and  fre- 
quently-cited instance  is  Heb.  10  :  25  :  "  Not  for- 
saking the  assembling  of  ourselves  together,  as 
the  manner  of  some  is ;  but  exhorting  one  an- 
other."    No  reproof  for  neglect  would  lie  against 


ORIGIN   ON    THE    I^ORD'S    DAY.  197 

the  persons  addressed  in  this  text  unless  there  ex- 
isted a  custom  of  regular,  stated  assemblage,  in- 
volving a  well-recognized  and  clearly-defined 
duty.  While  the  first  day  of  the  week  is  not 
mentioned  in  this  place,  yet  the  passage  fits  in 
perfectly  with  what  we  know  of  the  early  uses  of 
that  day.  To  the  same  effect  are  the  references 
of  Paul  in  one  of  his  letters  to  the  Corinthians : 
"When  ye  come  together  in  the  church  I  hear 
that  there  be  divisions  among  you,"  i  Cor.  11 :  18; 
"If  therefore  the  whole  church  be  come  together 
into  one  place,  etc.  .  .  .  How  is  it  then,  breth- 
ren? when  ye  come  together,  every  one  of  you 
hath  a  psalm,  hath  a  doctrine,  hath  a  tongue, 
hath  a  revelation,  hath  an?  interpretation.  Let 
all  things  be  done  unto  edifying."  i  Cor.  14  :  23, 
26.  These  quotations  establish  the  fact  of  stated 
religious  gatherings,  and  indicate  their  purpose — 
instruction,  exhortation,  and  the  exercise  of  spir- 
itual gifts.  There  is  every  likelihood  that  these 
meetings  took  place  on  the  day  elsewhere  indi- 
cated as  having  been  employed  in  that  manner, 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  or  the  Lord's  day. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  the  central  theme 
of  the  apostles'  preaching  was  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  that  upon  that  fact  they  declared  that  the 
church  must  stand  or  fall ;  when  it  is  reflected 
that  this  greatest  of  miracles  is  the  beginning  and 


198  the:  abiding  sabbath. 

promise  of  all  redemption  and  of  the  new  crea- 
tion, that  it  is  the  very  pivot  on  which  the  world's 
history  turns,  the  selection  of  the  lyord's  day  by 
the  apostles  as  the  one  festival  day  of  the  new  soci- 
ety seems  so  obviously  natural,  and  even  necessary, 
that  when  we  join  to  these  considerations  the  fact 
that  it  was  so  employed,  we  can  no  longer  deny 
to  the  religious  use  of  Sunday  the  high  sanction 
of  apostolic  authority.  Preachers  of  the  gospel  of 
the  resurrection  and  founders  of  the  church  of  the 
resurrection,  they  gave  a  new,  sacred  character  to 
the  day  of  the  resurrection  by  their  own  example 
and  by  their  explicit  injunctions. 

In  the  apostolic  age  the  first  day  of  the  week 
had  already  received  the  title  of  *'the  Lord's 
day,''  as  appears  from  the  remarkable  text  in  the 
Apocalypse  where  John  states,  ' '  I  was  in  the 
Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day."  Rev.  i  :  10.  It  is 
impossible  to  give  any  suitable  meaning  to  this 
except  as  a  reference  to  the  first  day  of  the  week. 
That  interpretation  w^hich  paraphrases  it  *'day  of 
the  Lord,"  meaning  thereby  the  judgment-day,  is 
not  warranted  by  the  construction  or  by  the  con- 
text. *  The  prominence  given  to  the  resurrection 
in  the  connection  (verses  5  and  18)  fully  warrants 

*  See  Cremer's  "Biblico-Theological  Lexicon,"  sub  voce 
KvptaKog.  Also  "  Commentaries"  of  Diisterdieck,  Alford,  Lange, 
etc. 


ORIGIN   OF  THE    I^ORD'S    DAY.  199 

the  conclusion — when  we  remember  also  the  most 
ancient  ecclesiastical  use  of  the  phrase — that  the 
day  of  the  weekly  celebration  of  the  resurrection 
was  the  day  in  question.  The  beloved  disciple  ou 
the  lonely  island  of  his  exile  joins  with  his  dis- 
tant brethren  in  Bphesus  and  the  other  churches 
of  Asia  Minor  in  their  worship  of  the  risen  and 
exalted  Saviour.  To  him  thus  worshipping  again 
the  miracle  of  Pentecost  is  repeated,  and  he  is 
seized  and  enwrapped  with  spiritual  influences; 
again  the  Risen  One,  who  had  repeatedly  ap- 
peared on  the  first  day  of  the  w^eek,  manifests 
himself  to  his  beloved  disciple,  not  in  the  form 
that  came  forth  from  Joseph's  tomb,  but  in  the 
glorified  body  of  his  session  at  the  right  hand  ot 
the  Father.  Again  is  the  Christian  Sabbath  sig- 
nalized as  the  day  of  special  spiritual'  communion 
with  our  blessed  lyord.  It  is  therefore  peculiarly 
his  own — the  Lord's  day. 

As  has  already  been  observed,  there  is  no  trace 
of  any  authorized  religious  use  of  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath by  the  Christian  church  in  the  whole  New 
Testament.  On  the  contrary,  the  obligation  to 
keep  it  is  denied,  both  by  precept  and  practice. 
But  we  have  also  discovered  that  the  first  day  of  the 
week  was  kept  as  a  day  of  religious  worship  by  the 
apostles  and  the  New  Testament  church.  We  are 
warranted  therefore  in  asserting  divine  authority 


200  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

for  the  institution  of  the  I^ord's  day;  and  although 
it  is  not  called  Sabbath  for  centuries  afterwards, 
for  the  reason  that  to  call  it  so  would  confuse  it 
with  the  Hebrew  institution,*  yet  the  essential 
ideas  of  the  Sabbath  were  embodied  in  it,  and  it 
became  truly  the  Christian  Sabbath  and  the  truest 
Sabbath  that  the  world  has  yet  known.  Not  by 
a  formal  change  of  day,  but  by  a  real  succession 
to  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  primitive  institu- 
tion, it  has  superseded  every  previously  designated 
day  of  rest,  and  has  become  the  final  earthly  form 
of  the  abiding  Sabbath. 

*  The  word  Sabbath  had  become  in  fact  and  was  freely 
used  as  a  name  for  the  seventh  day  of  the  week.  This  use 
still  survives  in  the  Italian  Sabato,  the  Spanish  Sabado,  the 
French  Samedi,  and  the  German  Samstag.  Those  who  base 
any  argument  for  seventh-day  observance  on  these  names 
should  remember  that  the  same  languages,  excepting  Ger- 
man, give  to  the  first  day  of  the  week  a  name  derived  from 
the  Latin  Dominica — Lord's  day.  The  first  and  seventh  days 
of  the  week  are  by  the  southern  nations  of  Europe,  among 
whom  the  gospel  first  spread,  distinguished  from  the  other 
days  of  the  week  by  not  bearing  heathen  names.  There  has 
thus  been  placed  in  the  calendar  a  distinct^monument  of  the 
coexistence  of  both  institutions,  side  by  side,  in  the  early 
Christian  ages.  The  Lord's  day  has  survived  the  decay  of  its 
effete  and  abolished  predecessor.  Warning  cannot  be  given 
too  often  of  the  danger  of  confounding  Sabbath  as  the  name 
of  a  day  of  the  week  and  Sabbath  as  a  modern  name  of  an 
institution  older  by  many  centuries  than  the  Hebrew  institu- 
tion which  has  given  it  its  name. 


CHANGE   OF   DAY.  20I 


CHAPTER  IV. 


CHANGE   OF   DAY. 

"  The  old  order  changeth,  giving  place  to  new, 
And  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways, 
Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world," 

TENNYSON. 

The  phrase  "change  of  day"  is  misleading. 
What  really  has  taken  place  is  more  than  a  mere 
alteration  of  the  day;  it  is  a  newly  created  form 
of  the  institution  which  has  superseded  all  past 
forms.  The  Lord's  day  rests  on  reasons  of  its 
own,  and  has  a  life  of  its  own,  independent  of 
anything  that  has  been  bequeathed  to  it  from  the 
Jewish  Sabbath  ;  but  there  have  also  been  incor- 
porated into  it  the  ideas  of  the  abiding  Sabbath 
which  it  worthily  expresses. 

Again  let  it  be  urged  that  the  Sabbath  as  an 
institution  and  the  Sabbath  as  the  name  of  a  day 
are  entirely  distinct.*  In  the  Scriptures  the  name 
is  applied  only  to  the  Sabbath  of  Israel.  It  is 
only  by  universal  modern  consent  that  we  use  the 
word  "Sabbath"  as  the  name  of  an  institution  of 
rest  and  worship,  ordained  at  the  Creation  and 

*  See  definition  of  "  Sabbath  "  in  Webster's  *'  Unabridged 
Dictionary." 


202  THK   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

confirmed  in  every  divine  dispensation.  This  fact 
held  firmly  in  mind  will  rescue  us  from  the  delu- 
sions and  illusions  produced  in  too  many  minds 
by  names  and  words.  To  clear  the  mental  atmos- 
phere of  any  mistiness  let  the  case  be  thus  stated: 
God  at  the  Creation  ordained  that  a  seventh 
day  after  six  days,  of  work  should  be  hallowed  by 
rest  from  ordinary  toil  and  by  special  religious 
activity ;  to  his  chosen  people  he  gave  the  same 
ordinance,  placing  it  besides  in  the  moral  code 
transmitted  through  them  to  the  world,  and  by 
them  it  was  observed  and  called  the  Sabbath;  in 
the  Christian  dispensation  it  was  again  confirmed 
and  newly  established  under  the  name  of  the 
Lord's  day ;  in  the  later  days  of  the  Christian 
church,  seeing  that  but  one  institution  lives  un- 
der this  triple  manifestation,  we  have  commonly 
applied  the  name  most  commonly  used  in  the 
Bible,  the  name  "Sabbath,"  which  specially  be- 
longs to  the  Jewish  day,  to  the  whole  institution; 
and  this  is  not  inappropriate  when  we  remember 
that  the  word  "Sabbath"  is  the  one  used  in  the 
Fourth  Commandment,  that  it  means  ' '  rest, ' '  and 
that  it  is  the  substantive  form  of  the  verb  em- 
ployed in  Gen.  2  :  2,  3,  also  Bxod.  31  :  17,  to  de- 
scribe the  divine  resting  after  creation.  Keeping 
this  statement  in  mind,  it  can  be  clearly  seen  that 
w^hile  the  obligation  of  the  institution  is  moral 


CHANGE   OF   DAY.  203 

and  abiding,  the  day  chosen,  being  of  the  formal 
element,  is  only  temporary  in  its  character.  As 
a  human  monument  the  particular  day  has  value, 
but  it  has  no  bearing  on  that  divine  ordinance  of 
rest  and  worship  which  comes  to  us  out  of  eternity 
and  blends  again  with  it  at  the  end  of  time. 

I.  The  particular  day  is  no  essential  part  of  the 
institutio7t. 

The  moral  institution  of  the  Sabbath  is  based 
upon  the  divine  rest  after  creation.  This  cannot 
be  construed  as  confined  to  a  literal  day  of  twen- 
ty-five hours;  for  the  rest  of  God  is  his  spiritual 
activity  in  providence,  and  afterwards  in  redemp- 
tion, which  followed  the  mere  physical  task  of 
creation.  God  is  still  keeping  his  Sabbath. 
Time  is  an  adjustment  to  our  human  weakness, 
a  mode  of  our  finite  thinking;  and  while  the  law 
of  the  Sabbath  is  such  that,  when  manifested,  it 
must  make  a  special  portion  of  time  the  material 
of  which  the  Sabbath  consists,  yet  its  moral  obli- 
gation is  inherent  in  its  moral  meaning,  and  not 
in  its  temporal  garb  of  times  and  seasons.  Yet, 
without  doubt,  the  spiritual  intent  of  the  Sab- 
bath will  fail  of  full  realization  except  all  men 
unite  upon  one  day.  This  one  day  we  arrive  at, 
not  by  a  study  of  ancient  calendars  and  chronol- 
ogy, but  by  a  religious  consensus  of  the  Christian 
church,  which  has  not  been  without  divine  gui- 


204  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

dance,  and  which  has  for  the  highest  and  holiest 
reasons  fixed  upon  the  Lord's  day  as  the  day 
which  for  Christendom  embodies  within  itself 
the  perpetual  obligation  of  the  Sabbatic  law. 

Another  difficulty  is  connected  with  our  pure- 
ly arbitrary  use  of  the  word  ' '  day. ' '  When  does 
the  day  commence  and  end  ?  Shall  we  define,  as 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  that  the  "evening 
and  morning"  make  a  day,  and  therefore  reckon 
from  sunset  to  sunset,  as  did  the  Puritans?  or 
shall  we  keep  the  civil  day  from  midnight  to 
midnight  ?  And  by  either  method  of  calculation 
what  would  become  of  the  Sabbath  at  the  poles, 
where  either  from  sunset  to  sunset  or  from  mid- 
night to  midnight  would  give  a  Sabbath  a  whole 
year  long  ?  Again,  if  we  travel  around  the  world 
to  the  westward,  we  shall  gain  a  day  on  the  sun. 
Hence  Dr.  Wallis,*  of  Oxford,  recommended 
seventh-day  Sabbatarians  to  make  a  voyage 
around  the  world,  "going  out  of  the  Atlantic 
ocean  westward  by  the  straits  of  Magellan  to  the 
East  Indies,  and  then  from  the  east  returning  by 
the  cape  of  Good  Hope  homeward,  and  let  them 
keep  their  Saturday-Sabbath  all  the  way.  When 
they  come  home  to  England  they  will  find  their 

*  John  Wallis,  F.  R.  S.,  Savilian  professor  of  Geometry 
in  the  University  of  Oxford,  published  in  1692  a  witty  and 
ingenious  "Defence  of  the  Christian  Sabbath." 


CHANGE    OF   DAY  205 

Saturday  to  fall  on  our  Sunday,  and  they  may 
thenceforth  continue  to  observe  their  Saturday- 
Sabbath  on  the  same  day  with  us. ' '  DifferencesX 
of  longitude  make  it  impossible  to  observe  the  / 
Sabbath  everywhere  at  the  same  time.  Indeed, 
there  is  no  end  to  the  complications  and  petty 
problems  that  may  be  raised  when  we  once  begin 
to  exalt  the  form  over  the  substance.  Reason 
and  common  sense  refuse  to  be  put  in  bondage  to 
such  a  thought-form  as  time.  It  is  a  return  to 
the  slavery  of  the  letter  which  Christian  freedom 
cannot  tolerate. 

But  as  a  concession  to  that  human  weakness 
which  still  is  troubled,  after  eighteen  centuries' 
drill  in  spiritual  religion,  about  the  particular 
day  of  the  week  to  be  honored,  the  question  will 
be  fairly  met. 

2.  There  is  no  possible  means  of  fixing  the  day 
of  the  original  Sabbath. 

Who  can  tell  on  what  day  of  the  week  the 
first  man  was  created?  The  week  is  not  the 
aliquot  part  of  any  other  division  of  time,  either 
lunar  or  solar.  It  does  not,  therefore,  fit  itself 
regularly  to  any  calendar.  That  it  should  have 
been  preserved  unchanged,  while  the  more  regu- 
lar calendar  of  months  and  years  has  undergone 
alteration  more  than  once,  is  not  for  one  moment 
to  be  believed.     For  the  sake,  however,  of  any 


1 


2o6  I'HE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

literalists  who  still  believe  that  the  work  of  crea- 
tion began  on  Sunday  eve  and  ended  Friday  at 
sunset,  it  may  be  suggested  that  the  seventh  day 
of  creation  was  the  first  day  of  man's  existence. 
If  he  began  the  calculation  of  the  week  from  that 
time,  and  kept  the  same  Sabbath  with  his  Maker, 
then  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  not  the 
seventh,  was  the  primitive  and  patriarchal  Sab- 
bath. If  a  crude,  bald  literalism  is  to  be  the 
rule  of  interpretation,  let  us  follow  it  boldly,  no 
matter  where  it  takes  us.  This  suggestion  is 
made,  not  for  any  value  which  it  possesses  in 
itself,  but  as  a  fair  illustration  of  the  difficulties 
attending  any  attempt  to  fix  the  day. 

But  next  to  positive  evidence  can  be  given 
that  the  primitive  Sabbath  was  not  and  could 
not  have  been  directly  and  regularly  transmitted 
to  the  time  of  Moses.  The  Hebrew  monotheistic 
development  begins  with  Abram  of  Chaldsea.  It 
cannot  well  be  doubted  that  he  brought  from 
Mesopotamia  the  division  of  the  week  and  the 
tradition  of  the  Sabbath.  That  our  earliest  reli- 
gious traditions  come  to  us  through  the  Assyrian 
rather  than  the  Egyptian  line,  is  one  of  the  facts 
most  certainly  established  by  modern  research 
and  exploration.  Now  we  have  recently  learned 
the  exact  character  of  the  Chaldscan  and  Assyrian 
week.     Bach  month  contained  thirty  days,  and- 


CHANGE   OF    DAY.  20/ 

was  divided  into  four  weeks  of  seven  days  each, 
the  last  two  days  being  regarded  as  intercalated. 
The  first  day  of  the  week  was  therefore  regularly 
the  first  day  of  the  month.*  The  fact  that  two 
extra  days  in  every  month  were  excluded  from 
the  computation  of  the  week  and  regularly 
skipped,  makes  it  impossible  that,  by  this  system 
of  computation,  the  exact  recurring  seventh  day 
from  the  creation  of  man  could  have  been  handed 
down  to  Abram. 

There  is  also  a  break  between  Abram  and 
Moses.  For  several  generations  Israel  was  in 
bondage  in  Egypt,  and,  we  must  infer,  without 
a  Sabbath.  The  Egyptians  had  not  at  that  time 
the  seven-day  week,  but  observed  instead  a 
period  of  ten  days.  It  is  not  at  all  likely  that 
a  servile  tribe,  probably  without  letters  or  cul- 
ture, could  have  preserved  unchanged  for  over 
four  hundred  years  a  week  whose  very  existence 
was  connected  with  a  day  of  rest  of  which  they 
had  been  deprived.  Consequently,  in  the  wil- 
derness, the  Sabbath  is  introduced  as  something 
new;  and  while  its  law  refers  back  to  the  begin- 
ning, the  Mosaic  Sabbath  is  always  spoken  of  as 
established  in  memory  of  the  deliverance  from 

*  Consult  the  hemerologies  published  in  "  Cuneiform  In- 
scriptions of  Western  Asia,"  IV.  pi.  32  and  33,  by  Sayce. 
Also  "Records  of  the  Past,"  VII.  159-168.  See  F.  LeNor- 
mant,  "  Beginnings  of  History,"  248. 

Abiding  Sabbath.  1 4 


208  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

Egypt.  *     Here  again  the  succession  of  days  was 
probably  lost. 

Neither  is  there  any  absolute  certainty  that 
the  Jews  at  the  time  of  Christ  kept  the  exact  day 
of  Mosaic  institution.  There  is  even  a  possibility 
that  the  Babylonian  captivity  effaced  temporarily 
the  institution.  When  again  reinstated  by  Nehe- 
miah,  it  cannot  certainly  be  affirmed  to  have 
fallen  on  the  same  day.  A  doubt,  not  wholly 
captious,  arises  when  we  consider  the  confusion 
which  contact  with  the  irregular  Babylonian 
week  may  have  occasioned.  These  facts  are 
quite  sufficient  to  dispose  of  any  pretence  of  ob- 
serving the  original  day  of  the  Sabbath. 


*  It  can  be  shown  with  some  certainty  that  the  Sabbath 
instituted  by  Moses  was  entirely  a  new  institution  to  Israel. 
Careful  examination  of  the  sixteenth  chapter  of  Exodus 
which  relates  its  establishment  will  show  that,  apparently, 
exactly  a  week  previous  to  the  day  marked  by  the  absence 
of  manna  Israel  pitched  tent  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin.  That 
day  could  not,  therefore,  have  been  a  Sabbath  at  that  time. 
Yet  it  seems  probable  that  some  day  had  been  celebrated  by 
them  before,  for  it  is  not  likely  that  God  would  leave  his 
people  in  their  wanderings  for  an  entire  month  without  days 
of  rest,  especially  when  it  is  remembered  that  one  purpose 
of  the  escape  from  Egypt  was  to  gain  the  opportunity  of 
worship.  But  if  the  day  exactly  a  week  before  the  first  Israel- 
itish  Sabbath  was  a  common  work-day,  it  follows  that  the 
institution  of  the  Sabbath  by  Moses  may  have  involved  an 
actual  change  of  day.  This  argument  is  at  least  sufficiently 
fair  against  the  literalists  who  insist  that  the  Saturday-Sab- 
bath is  the  precise  day  on  which  the  Creator  rested. 


chang:e;  of  day.  209 

3.    There  are  pirstcmptioits  in  favor  of  a  change. 

There  are  good  reasons  for  expecting  a  change 
with  the  establishment  of  the  Christian  church. 
Besides  the  inward  meaning  of  spiritual  release 
from  secular  toil,  the  day  of  rest  and  worship 
always  has  possessed  under  every  divine  economy 
a  monumental  significance.  In  the  patriarchal 
age,  the  creation  of  the  world  and  of  man  was 
the  great  event  to  be  commemorated;  in  Israel, 
the  deliverance  from  Egypt;  and  in  the  Christian 
dispensation,  the  perfected  redemption  through 
the  resurrection  of  our  Lord.  The  last,  indeed, 
is  a  new  creation,  which  bears  in  it  the  promise 
of  *'a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth;''  it  is  a 
deliverance  from  a  bondage  more  bitter  than  that 
of  Egypt.  By  just  so  much  as  the  spiritual  crea- 
tion is  more  noble  than  that  of  the  material  uni- 
verse, and  by  so  much  as  the  moral  and  eternal 
redemption  of  the  race  excels  in  glory  the  na- 
tional redemption  of  Israel,  is  the  Lord's  day 
more  worthy  of  perpetuity,  and  more  divinely 
honored,  than  any  form  which  the  Sabbath  had 
previously  taken. 

Let  the  following  considerations  be  noticed. 
Such  was  the  strong  prejudice  of  the  first  Chris- 
tians in  favor  of  Jewish  observances  that  the 
change  could  not  have  taken  place  without  di- 
vine authority.     The  apostles  had  received  full 


2IO  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

power  from  the  Saviour  to  legislate  for  his 
church,  presumably  on  this  as  on  all  questions, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  and  we 
cannot  doubt  that  they  exercised  their  right. 
What  then  did  they  do  ?  They  either  recognized 
the  claim  of  the  Sabbath  as  unchanged,  or  abol- 
ished it  altogether,  or  transferred  its  obligation 
to  the  Lord's  day.  But  while  the  apostles,  con- 
vened at  the  council  in  Jerusalem  to  decide  which 
among  the  practices  distinguishing  a  Jew  from  a 
heathen  were  necessary  to  be  observed  by  Gentile 
Christians,  omitted  observance  of  the  Sabbath 
from  their  commands  (Acts  15:1-29);  and  while 
the  apostle  Paul  explicitly  set  aside  the  Jewish 
Sabbath;  yet  in  affirming  (as  did  Jesus  also)  the 
continued  obligation  of  the  Decalogue,  the  apos- 
tles confirmed  the  abiding  Sabbath.  The  conclu- 
sion is  irresistible  that  they  established  the  lyord's 
day  as  the  rightful  inheritor  of  the  Sabbatic  idea, 
and  that  to  it  they  transferred  the  Sabbath  obli- 
gation of  the  moral  law. 

Again,  in  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  (chs.  56  and 
58),  the  continued  existence  of  the  Sabbatic  in- 
stitution in  the  dispensation  marked  by  the  reve- 
lation of  God's  salvation  in  Christ  and  by  the 
spread  of  the  knowledge  and  acceptance  of  the 
true  God  in  the  Gentile  world,  i.  e. ,  under  Chris- 
tianity, seems  to  be  foretold.     Unless  the  Lord's 


CHANGE   OF  DAY.  211 

day  be  truly  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord,  this  proph- 
ecy has  so  far  failed  of  any  worthy  fulfilment. 

There  is  great  force  in  the  universal  adoption 
of  the  Lord's  day  as  Sabbath,  as  will  be  more 
fully  shown  in  the  following  chapters.  It  is 
inconceivable  that  divine  authority  can  now  be 
attached  to  a  day  which  the  church  of  God  has 
not  observed  for  eighteen  centuries;  and  it  is 
equally  impossible  to  think  that  the  Lord's  day 
is  without  this  authority.  It  is  easy  to  under- 
value this  argument  from  consent,  but  such  long- 
continued  and  universal  consent  cannot  be  ex- 
plained except  on  the  supposition  of  some  suffi- 
cient authority  beneath  it.  The  absence  of  any 
controversy  on  this  question  of  day  in  the  early 
church  is  by  itself  almost  absolutely  conclusive 
as  to  the  divine  superintendence  in  that  historic 
process  by  which  the  Christian  Lord's  day  took 
in  time  the  place,  name,  and  authority  of  the 
Jewish  Sabbath,  and  became  the  abiding  Sab- 
bath, the  true  inheritor  of  all  the  Sabbath  mean- 
ings of  all  the  ages.  The  Lord's  day,  as  the  day 
of  the  Redeemer's  resurrection,  and  therefore  the 
representative  of  the  real  coming  completion  of 
God's  counsel  of  creation,  is  the  only  true  type  of 
the  Sabbath  of  eternity,  which  has  hovered  over 
our  sin-cursed  planet  through  all  its  history,  but 
will  on  the  final  day  of  •  resurrection  come  down 


212  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

to  bless  the  redeemed  earth  with  its  unending 
gladness.  Only  on  the  Lord's  day  can  the  Sab- 
bath be  kept  in  all  its  meaning.  If  worship  and 
rest  were  all  of  the  Sabbatic  idea,  they  could 
indeed  be  observed  on  other  days;  but  the  abi- 
ding Sabbath  has  deeper  thoughts.  These  the 
Lord's  day  alone  expresses. 


IN   THE  ANTE-NICE:NE   PERIOD.  213 


^lUA^ 


CHAPTER  V. 


HISTORY    OF    THE    LORD'S   DAY    IN    THE    ANTE- 
NICENE   PERIOD. 

"  To  abstain  from  secular  toil  and  do  no  mundane  task ; 
to  be  free  to  attend  to  spiritual  works ;  to  assemble  at  the 
church  and  give  ear  to  the  Scriptures  and  the  instructions ; 
to  think  concerning  heavenly  things ;  to  have  solicitude  about 
your  future  hope;  to  keep  the  coming  judgment  before  your 
eyes ;  to  regard  not  present  and  seen,  but  unseen  and  future 
things— this  it  is  to  observe  the  Christian  Sabbath." 

ORIGEN. 

For  the  perfect  establishment  of  the  Christian 
Sabbath,  as  has  already  been  observed,  there  was 
needed  a  social  revolution  in  the  Roman  Empire. 
The  infant  church,  in  its  struggles  through  per- 
secution and  martyrdom,  had  not  the  power  even 
to  keep  the  Lord's  day  perfectly  itself,  much  less 
could  the  sanctity  of  the  day  be  guarded  from 
desecration  by  unbelievers.  We  should  expect 
therefore  to  find  the  institution  making  a  deepen- 
ing groove  on  society  and  in  historj^  and  becom- 
ing a  well-defined  ordinance  the  very  moment 
that  Christianity  became  a  dominant  power. 
That  such  was  the  case  the  facts  fully  confirm. 
From  the  records  of  the  early  church  and  the 
works  of  the  Christian  Fathers  we  can  clearly  see 


214  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

the  growth  of  the  institution  culminating  in  the 
famous  edict  of  Constantine,  when  Christianity 
became  the  established  religion  of  the  empire. 

The  references  to  the  I^ord's  day  in  the  wri- 
tings of  the  first  century  are  confessedly  scanty ; 
yet  this  is  not  surprising  when  we  remember  that 
only  half  the  century  really  belongs  to  the  history 
of  the  church,  and  how  few  authentic  writings 
are  in  existence  which  can  be  ascribed  to  that 
period.  But  when  we  add  the  New  Testament 
references  which  properly  belong  here  to  the  rest, 
the  testimonies  of  the  latter  half  of  the  first  cen- 
tury become  very  respectable  both  in  numbers 
and  weight. 

The  earliest  writer  who  can  be  cited  is  Clem- 
ent of  Rome,  who  died  about  A.  D.  lOO.  His 
Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  is  of  all  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal writings  of  the  primitive  church  the  most  de- 
vout and  apostolic  in  spirit.  He  says,  "We  ought 
to  do  in  order  all  things  which  the  Master  hath 
commanded  us  to  perform  at  fixed  times.  •  He 
hath  commanded  the  due  observance  of  offerings 
and  rites,  to  take  place  neither  irregularly  nor 
negligently,  but  at  appointed  times  and  hours."* 
This  passage  does  not  indeed  refer  by  name  to  the 
Lord's  day,  but  it  proves  most  conclusively  the 

*  Clement  of  Rome,  "  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,'* 

240. 


IN   THE   ANTE-NICEXE    PERIOD.  215 

existence  at  that  time  of  prescribed  seasons  of  wor- 
ship, and  asserts  their  appointment  by  the  Saviour 
himself.  Here  is  a  witness  to  this  important  link 
in  the  argument  who  was  contemporaneous  with 
the  apostle  John.  In  the  reference  to  *' offerings'' 
we  recall  the  direction  of  Paul  to  make  benevo- 
lent collections  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  The 
passage  is  a  testimony  to  w^ell-known  existing  in- 
stitutions, fully  in  harmony  with  all  we  have  dis- 
covered of  the  uses  of  that  day. 

Ignatius,  a  disciple  of  John,  w^ho  wrote  about 
A.  D.  100,  is  the  next  author  to  be  quoted.  In  a 
contrast  between  Judaism  and  Christianity,  after 
making  the  claim  that  the  holy  prophets  were 
Christian  in  spirit,  he  goes  on  to  say:  "If  those 
who  were  concerned  with  old  things  have  come 
to  newness  of  hope,  no  longer  keeping  Sabbaths, 
but  living  according  to  the  Lord's  day,  on  which 
our  life  has  risen  again  through  him  and  his 
death,  ....  how  can  we  Kve  without  him  whom 
the  prophets  waited  for  as  their  Teacher,  being  in 
spirit  his  disciples  ?  And  therefore  did  he,  when 
he  came  whom  they  justly  waited  for,  raise  them 
from  the  dead. ' '  *  There  may  be  here  a  suggestion 

*  "  Ignatius,  "  Ad  Magnesios,"  ^  9.  The  reading  of  the 
edition  of  Cotelerius  is  followed  in  the  above  translation.  See 
also  the  notes  in  Jacobson's  edition.  The  passage  is  obscure 
and  the  text  doubtless  corrupt,  but  the  trend  of  meaning  is 
not  indistinct.    The  argument  can  do  without  it,  if  necessary. 


2l6  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

that  among  the  dead  who  arose  at  the  crucifixion 
of  Jesus  were  the  holy  prophets,  and  that,  having 
thus  risen  again,  they  kept  I^ord's  day  with  him, 
and  that  consequently  even  the  Old  Testament 
saints  are  "no  longer  keeping  Sabbaths."  But 
we  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  Scripture  inter- 
pretations of  our  author.  It  is  sufficient  to  note 
that  he  refers  to  the  Jewish  Sabbath  as  something 
annulled  and  abolished,  that  he  indicates  the  first 
day  of  the  w^eek  as  its  successor,  and  follows  the 
example  of  his  teacher,  John,  in  calling  it  the 
"lyord's  day."  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  in  the 
forgery  known  to  scholars  as  the  ' '  larger  epistle ' ' 
of  Ignatius,  which  is  simply  an  expansion  of  this 
genuine  writing,  this  passage  is  understood  as  re- 
ferring to  the  Lord's  day,  but  it  is  so  modified  as 
to  enjoin  continued  observance  also  of  the  Jewish 
Sabbath;  a  witness  to  the  fact  that  will  hereafter 
be  referred  to,  that  a  later  period  of  the  primitive 
church  disclosed  a  tendency  to  react  towards  Ju- 
daism, and  that  old  documents  were  falsified  and 
others  forged  to  fortify  the  growing  ritualistic 
movement. 

Here  may  be  introduced  a  quotation  from  the 
so-called  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  which  must  be  dated 
in  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  at  least,  if 
indeed  it  be  not  a  genuine  writing  of  the  compan- 
ion of  Paul.     It  is  as  follows:  "Lastly,  He  says 


IN  the:  ante-nicene  period.         217 

to  them,  Your  new  moons  and  Sabbaths  I  cannot 
bear  with.  Consider  what  He  says:  Your  present 
Sabbaths  are  not  acceptable  to  me ;  but  those 
which  I  have  made  when,  resting  from  all  things, 
I  shall  ^make  the  eighth  day  a  beginning,  which 
is  the  beginning  of  another  world.  Therefore  we 
keep  the  eighth  day  with  joy,  on  which  Jesus  also 
arose  from  the  dead,  and  having  appeared,  he  as- 
cended into  heaven. ' '  "^  The  cessation  of  the  Jew- 
ish Sabbath,  the  substitution  of  the  Lord's  day, 
and  the  reason  of  the  change,  are  all  confirmed  by 
this  passage. 

A  further  testimony,  this  time  from  a  pagan 
source,  is  found  in  the  well-known  letter  of  Pliny 
to  Trajan,  A.  D.  100,  in  which  he  is  representing 
the  case  of  the  new  *' superstition,"  as  he  calls 
Christianity,  to  the  emperor.  He  says:  "They 
(the  Christians)  constantly  declare  the  whole  of 
their  crime  or  error  to  be  this,  that  they  are  accus- 
tomed to  meet  together  on  a  stated  day  before  it 
is  light  and  sing  a  hymn  to  Christ  as  God."t 

*  "Epistle  of  Barnabas,"  ^  15.  The  external  evidence  of 
the  authorship  of  this  writing  would  be  convincing  but  for  the 
discredit  which  its  internal  character  casts  upon  it,  its  seem- 
ing ignorance  of  some  facts  in  Jewish  life  and  history  making 
it  doubtful  if  it  be  the  writing  of  a  Hebrew  by  birth.  There 
is  a  very  close  relationship  between  this  writing  and  the 
"  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles."  No  critical  basis  has 
yet  been  laid  on  which  the  priority  of  either  can  be  estab- 
lished, f  Pliny,  "  Epistles,"  X.  97. 


21 8  THK   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

As  we  enter  the  second  century  there  is  no 
lack  of  proofs  of  the  existence  of  the  Lord's  day 
as  an  established  institution,  as  well  as  of  the  dis- 
use into  which  the  Jewish  Sabbath  had  fallen. 

Justin  Martyr,  the  great  apologist  of  the  prim- 
itive church,  A.  D.  138,  makes  abundant  refer- 
ences to  the  custom.  Rewrites  thus:  "On  the 
day  called  Sunday  there  is  a  gathering  in  one 
place  of  all  who  reside  either  in  the  cities  or  in 
country-places,  and  the  memoirs  of  the  apostles 
and  the  writings-  of  the  prophets  are  read. ' '  *  He 
goes  on  to  give  a  detailed  account  of  the  services 
of  the  day.  A  discourse  was  delivered  based  on 
the  passages  of  Scripture  read,  prayers  were  of- 
fered, the  Ivord's  Supper  was  administered,  and  a 
collection  was  taken  up.  The  likeness  of  this 
account  to  the  New  Testament  suggestions  of  the 
uses  of  the  '*  first  day  of  the  week"  is  unmistaka- 
ble. The  "breaking  of  bread"  and  the  "laying 
by  in  store ' '  of  the  ' '  collections  for  the  saints ' ' 
are  clearly  confirmed.  He  goes  on  to  state  the 
reason  for  observing  this  day:  "On  Sunday  we 
all  assemble  in  common  because  it  is  the  'first 
day,'  on  which  God,  having  dispelled  darkness 
and  disorder,  made  the  world,  and  because  on  the 
same  day  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour  rose  from  the 
dead."t     In  another  place  he  uses  circumcision 

*  Justin  Martyr,  "  Apology,"  I.  67.  f  Ibid. 


IN   THE   ANTE-NICENE   PERIOD.  219 

as  a  type  of  the  Lord's  day:  *'The  command  to 
circumcise  children  on  the  eighth  day  was  a  type 
of  the  real  circumcision  by  which  w^e  are  circum- 
cised from  error  and  sin  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  rose  from  the  dead  on  the  first  day  of 
the  week;  therefore  it  remains  the  chief  and  first 
of  all  the  days."*  It  should  be  remarked  that 
Justin  is  writing  for  the  conviction  of  heathen, 
and  therefore  does  not  speak  of  the  "Lord's  day," 
but  calls  it  by  its  heathen  name  "  Sunday."  Jlis 
evidence  is  conclusive  as  to  the  distinction  given 
to  the  first  day  of  the  w^eek  and  to  its  universal 
pious  observance  by  the  Christians  of  his  time. 

About  A.  D.  170,  Melito,  bishop  of  Sardis, 
wrote  a  work  on  the  "Lord's  Day;"t  and  about 
the  same  date  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Corinth,  in  a 
letter  written  to  the  church  at  Rome  and  ad- 
dressed to  Soter,  its  bishop,  uses  this  language : 
"To-day  we  have  spent  the  Lord's  holy  day,  and 
in  it  we  have  read  your  epistle. "J 

The  recently  discovered  "Teaching  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles,"  if  genuine,  as  is  maintained 
by  many  eminent  and  careful  scholars,  must  be 
given  a  place  early  in  this  century.  This  church 
hand-book  enjoins:  "And  on  the  Lord's  day  being 

*  "  Dialogue  with  Trypho,"  ^  41. 

t  Eusebius,  "  Ecclesiastical  History,"  IV.  26. 

t  Ibid.,  IV.  23. 


220  THE  ABIDING   SABBATH. 

gathered  together,  break  bread  and  give  thanks, 
having  also  confessed  your  sins,  that  your  sacri- 
fice may  be  pure."*  The  peculiarly  intensive 
phrase  rendered  "Lord's  day"  here  is,  literally, 
"The  Lord's  day  of  the  Lord,"  as  if  to  empha- 
size its  sacredness  and  obligation.  There  is  not 
in  the  whole  document  any  reference  whatever  to 
the  seventh-day  Sabbath,  and  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  this  is  a  manual  of  directions  as  to  re- 
ligious observance,  the  omission  is  significant,  f 
The  Jewish  Sabbath  is  not  even  mentioned  as  a 
fast,  though  it  was  certainly  observed  as  such  at 
a  later  time.  The  direction  with  regard  to  fast- 
ing is:  "And  let  not  your  fasting  be  with  the 
hypocrites,  for  they  fast  on  the  second  of  the  week 
and  the  fifth ;  but  do  ye  fast  on  the  fourth  and  on 
the  Preparation,  "t  The  Preparation  day  referred 
to  is  the  sixth  of  the  week,  Friday.  Now  that  the 
fast  days  were  each  set  forward  in  the  week  from 
the  days  customarily  observed  by  the  Jews  is  cer- 
tainly suggestive — when  taken  in  connection  with 
the  injunction  respecting  the  Lord's  day  and  the 

*  "Teaching,"  c.  14. 

t  The  silence  of  the  "  Teaching  "  on  the  seventh-day  Sab- 
bath is  in  marked  contrast  with  the  forged  "  Apostolical  Con- 
stitutions," which  bear  traces  of  having  been  built  up  by  a  later 
ritualistic  age  partly  on  the  basis  of  this  apparently  much 
more  ancient  document. 

t  "  Teaching,"  c.  18. 


IN   THE   ANTE-NICENE   PERIOD.  221 

silence  on  the  subject  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath — of 
the  fact  that  the  former  was  already  regarded  as 
superseding  the  latter,  ^nd  that  the  change  in 
fast  days  followed  in  consequence.  * 

Irenseus,  the  famous  bishop  of  Lyons,  A.  D. 
178,  is  another  witness.  For  a  full  understand- 
ing of  one  fragment  preserved  of  this  Father,  it 
must  be  stated  that  the  Lord's  day  was  so  fully 
regarded  as  a  day  of  joy  by  the  first  Christians 
that  many  of  them  went  to  the  extent  of  asserting 
that  prayer  on  that  day  should  always  be  offered 
in  a  standing  position,  as  kneeling  was  the  pos- 
ture of  humiliation.  In  the  fragment  referred  to, 
he  says  concerning  Pentecost  that  "on  it  we  do 
not  bend  the  knees,  since  it  is  equal  in  authority 
with  the  Lord's  day,  according  to  the  word  spo- 
ken as  to  its  reason,  "t  Observe  that  the  strong- 
est thing  he  can  say  for  Pentecost  is  to  claim  for 
it  equal  authority  wath  the  Lord's  day,  which 

*  This  view  of  the  case  is  confirmed  by  the  further  fact 
that  when  Saturday  came  a  little  later  to  be  observed  as  a 
fast  it  was  regarded  simply  as  a  continuation  of  the  Friday 
fast  in  preparation  for  the  Lord's  day,  "  in  order,"  says  Victo- 
rinus,  "  that  we  may  come  to  our  food  on  the  Lord's  day  with 
giving  of  thanks."  And  he  continues,  "  Let  the  preparation 
be  superimposed  (upon  the  seventh  day),  that  we  may  not 
seem  to  observe  the  Sabbath  with  the  Jews."  Routh,  "  Rel. 
Sac,"  in.  457.  As  to  this  superposition,  so  also  the  Council 
of  Eliberis,  "Canon  XXVI." 

t  "  Fragm.  lib.  de  Pascha,"  etc. 


222  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

seems,  therefore,  to  be  unquestioned.  iVlso,  in  the 
famous  Easter  controversy  which  disturbed  the 
church  during  this  century,  the  Gallic  churches, 
under  the  leadership  of  Irenseus,  sent  a  memorial 
to  Victor,  bishop  of  Rome,  in  which  it  is  remarked 
that  "on  the  Lord's  day  only  should  the  mystery 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  be  observed."* 
The  point  in  question  was  this:  Shall  Easter  be 
celebrated  at  the  time  of  the  Jewish  Passover,  on 
whatever  day  of  the  week  that  may  fall,  or  on 
the  Christian  Lord's  day?  Let  it  be  noticed  that 
although  there  was  much  dispute  as  to  the  proper 
time  of  annual  celebration  of  the  resurrection, 
there  was  never  any  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  proper  weekly  observance.  Irenaeus,  in  an- 
other place,  argues  that  the  Decalogue  is  still 
binding  upon  all  men,  for  the  reason  that  God 
spoke  its  commandments  by  his  own  voice;  while 
the  other  ordinances  of  the  law  are  not  thus  ob- 
ligatory, because  they  were  given  separately  by 
the  mouth  of  Moses;  the  latter,  he  declares,  are 
**  cancelled  by  the  new  covenant  of  liberty,  "f  It 
may  be  remarked  here,  once  for  all,  that  nothing 
in  the  whole  range  of  early  Christian  testimony 
can  be  found  to  sustain  the  opinion  that  the  Fa- 
thers thought  themselves  free  from  the  obliga- 

*  Eusebius,  "  Ecclesiastical  History,"  V.  24. 
t  Irenaeus,  "  Adv.  Hssreses,  IV.  31. 


IN   THE   ANTE-NICENE   PERIOD.  223 

tions  of  the  Decalogue,  any  more  than  from  the 
moral  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament  generally. 
The  whole  weight  of  their  authority  is  exactly 
the  other  way.  Every  one  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments was  held  as  morally  obligatory  by  the 
primitive  Christian  church. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  A.  D.  194,  in  a  mys- 
tical exposition  of  the  Fourth  Commandment,  in 
the  midst  of  fanciful  speculations  on  the  religious 
signification  of  numbers,  comes  down  long  enough 
from  the  loftier  flights  of  his  spiritual  arithmetic 
to  tell  us  that  the  seventh  day  of  the  law  has 
given  place  to  the  eighth  day  of  the  gospel, 
which  has  thus  become  a  true  se^^nth,  or  Sab- 
bath. The  old  seventh  has  become  nothing 
more  than  a  common  working  day.*  Nobody, 
of  course,  can  tell  what  far-fetched  and  unheard- 
of  meanings  may  lie  underneath  the  words  of  the 
good  semi-Gnostic  Father;  but  as  far  as  his  testi- 
mony goes,  it  helps  to  establish  the  fact  that  the 
first  day  of  the  week  filled  the  same  place  in  the 
minds  of  the  church  of  that  time  that  the  seventh 
day  had  occupied  in  the  Jewish  system.  Clement 
also  gives  directions  for  the  observance  of  the 
lyord's  day,  which  he  mentions  by  name.f 

This    century  will    be    concluded   with    the 
mention  of  that  most  brilliant  and  erratic  of  all 
*  Clemens  Alex.,  "  Stromata,"  VI.  16.       f  Ibid.,  VII.  12. 

Abiilinx  Sabbath.  j  r 


224  'THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

the  ante-Nicene  Christian  writers,  Tertullian  of 
Carthage.  Here  are  some  extracts  from  his  wri- 
tings: "Sundays  we  give  to  joy."  "We  think 
it  wrong  to  fast,  or  pray  kneeling,  on  the  Lord's 
day."*  Speaking  of  this  custom  of  standing  in 
prayer  on  Sunday,  he  remarks:  "We,  as  we  have 
received  it,  ought  not  so  much  by  this  custom 
alone  to  observe  the  day  of  the  Lord's  resurrec- 
tion, but  ought  also  to  be  free  from  every  hin- 
drance of  anxiety  and  duty,  laying  aside  our 
worldly  business,  lest  we  give  place  to  the  dev- 
il, "t  So  prominent  a  feature  of  the  Christianity 
of  that  age  was  Sunday  observance  that  Tertul- 
lian thought  it  necessary  to  defend  the  Christians 
from  the  charge  of  sun-worship:  "Likewise,  if 
we  spend  Sunday  in  rejoicing,  it  is  from  a  differ- 
ent reason  than  sun-worship;  we  are  also  distinct 
from  those  who  spend  Saturday  in  idleness  and 
feasting,  leaving  the  ancient  Jewish  custom  of 
which  they  are  ignorant,  "t 

This  vehement  writer  fitly  closes  this  list  of 
evidences  of  the  honored  place  filled  by  the 
Lord's  day  in  the  first  two  centuries  of  the  Chris- 
tian church.  Let  us  review  the  testimony  thus 
far  given.  In  order  to  appreciate  its  proper 
value,  it  should  be  observed  that  the  post-apos- 

*  Tertullian,  "  De  Cor.  Mil.,"  c.  3.       f  "  De  Orat.,"  c.  23. 
i  "  Apologia,"  c.  16. 


IN  THE   ANTE-NICKNE   PERIOD.  225 

tolic  writers  give  no  hint  of  the  origin  of  the 
Isold's  day  in  their  times,  but  speak  of  it  as  some- 
thing already  in  existence,  indeed  as  an  apostolic 
institution.  To  them  it  came  with  all  the  sanc- 
tion of  primitive  Christian  usage,  with  the  full 
consecration  of  the  Master  himself  Although, 
for  reasons  given  already,  they  nowhere  call  it  a 
Sabbath,  yet  they  speak  of  it  in  such  connections 
with  the  Jewish  Sabbath  and  with  the  Fourth 
Commandment  as  to  fully  invest  it  with  Sabbatic 
obligation.  They  give  also  such  an  account  of 
its  reasons  and  its  uses  as  to  set  it  upon  the  foun- 
dations of  the  ancient  Sabbatic  institution.  With 
many  of  their  opinions  we,  in  this  age,  are  forced 
to  disagree ;  some  of  their  doctrines  must  be 
looked  upon,  in  our  present  light,  as  in  the  high- 
est degree  fanciful  and  absurd ;  but  as  witnesses 
to  facts^  their  credibility  is  unshaken  and  their 
authority  is  sufficient.  The  undivided  support  of 
that  authority  is  on  the  side  of  the  Lord's  day. 

Origen,  the  great  Alexandrian  theologian  and 
commentator,  who  lived  in  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century,  writes  that  the  Lord's  day  is  placed 
above  the  Jewish  Sabbath.*  "To  keep  the 
Lord's  day"  is,  in  his  opinion,  "one  of  the 
marks  of  the  perfect  Christian,  "f    He  is  the  first 

*  Origen,  "  Commentary  on  Exodus." 
t  "  Against  Celsus,"  VIII.  22. 


226  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

to  apply  the  term  ''Jewish  Sabbath"  to  the  sev- 
enth day.  He  also  speaks  of  the  ' '  Christian  Sab- 
bath," although  it  cannot  be  positively  ascer- 
tained from  the  connection  whether  he  refers  to 
the  Ivord's  day,  or  only  to  the  gospel  dispensation 
generally.  He  states  in  the  most  absolute  man- 
ner, in  this  connection,  that  the  obligation  of  the 
Judaic  institution  had  totally  passed  away.  * 

In  the  year  254,  sixty-six  bishops,  composing 
the  Third  Council  of  Carthage  issued  a  synodical 
letter,  in  which,  after  the  manner  of  their  time, 
they  spiritualize  the  rite  of  circumcision  and 
make  it  a  type  of  the  Lord's  day.  "  For  because 
the  eighth  day  was  celebrated  by  Jewish  carnal 
circumcision,  it  is  a  pledge  given  beforehand  in 
shadow  and  figure,  but  which,  Christ  having 
come,  is  fulfilled  in  reality.  For  because  the 
eighth  day,  that  is  the  first  after  the  Sabbath,  w^as 
to  be  the  day  on  which  the  Lord  would  rise,  this 
eighth  day,  being  the  first  after  the  Sabbath,  and 
the  Lord's  day,  was  foreshadowed  by  the  figure, 
which  figure  has  ceased  since  the  reality  has  ap- 
peared and  the  spiritual  circumcision  has  been 
given  us."t 

Next  may  be  cited  Commodian,  A.  D.  270, 
who  speaks  of  the  Lord's  day.     Victorinus,  the 

*  "  Homily  "  23,  on  Numbers, 
t  Qprian,  "  Epist."  LIX. 


IN   THE  ANTH-NICENK   PERIOD.  227 

martyr,  A.  D.  290,  whom  we  have  already  quo- 
ted (p.  221,  note),  sees  a  reference  to  the  I^ord's 
day  in  the  heading  of  the  sixth  and  twelfth 
Psalms.*  To  the  same  time  belongs  Peter,  bish- 
op of  Alexandria,  who  writes:  "We  cannot  be 
charged  with  neglecting  the  fourth  day  and  the 
Preparation,  which  have  been  fitly  appointed  for 
us  as  fasts  by  tradition:  the  fourth,  because  of  the 
plot  formed  by  the  Jews  for  the  betrayal  of  the 
Ivord,  and  the  Preparation,  on  account  of  his  suf- 
fering for  us.  But  we  keep  with  joy  the  Lord's 
day,  because  of  him  who  rose  thereon,  and  on  it 
we  ought  not  to  bend  the  knee."t  If  the  seventh 
day  had  been  at  all  observed  at  this  time,  it  would 
certainly  have  received  some  mention  in  such  a 
catalogue  of  sacred  seasons  as  the  above.  But 
the  fact  that  the  fourth  and  sixth  days,  in  com- 
memoration of  events  in  gospel  history,  were  sub- 
stituted as  fasts  for  the  second  and  fifth  of  Juda- 
ism, which  were  supposed  to  commemorate  Mo- 
ses' ascent  and  descent  of  the  m.ount,  seems  to  be 
placed  in  direct  relation  to  the  greater  fact,  and 
to  follow  from  it,  that  a  like  change  had  already 
come  to  the  Sabbatic  institution. 

This  brings  us  to  the  end  of  the  third  century. 
Our  witnesses  form  an  unbroken  chain  of  support 

*  Routh,  "Rel.  Sac/'III.  457. 
t  "  Bibl.  Patr."  (Galland),  IV.  107. 


228  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

to  the  practice  of  Lord's-day  observance.  With 
the  beginning  of  the  next  century  a  great  revolu- 
tion took  place,  which  marks  a  new  era  in  the 
life  of  this  institution.  The  Bmperor  Constantine 
w^as  converted,  and  Christianity  became,  practi- 
cally, the  religion  of  the  empire.  It  was  now 
possible  to  enforce  the  Christian  Sabbath  and 
make  its  observance  universal.  In  the  year  321, 
consequently,  was  issued  the  famous  edict  of  Con- 
stantine commanding  abstinence  from  servile  la- 
bor on  Sunday.     The  following  is  the  full  text: 

THE   EMPEROR  CONSTANTINE  TO   HELPIDIUS. 

On  the  venerable  day  of  the  sun,  let  the  mag- 
istrates and  people  living  in  towns  rest,  and  let 
all  workshops  be  closed.  Nevertheless,  in  the 
country,  those  engaged  in  the  cultivation  of  land 
may  freely  and  lawfully  work,  because  it  often 
happens  that  another  day  is  not  so  well  fitted  for 
sowing  grain  and  planting  vines;  lest  by  neglect 
of  the  best  time,  the  bounty  provided  by  heaven 
should  be  lost.  Given  the  seventh  day  of  March, 
Crispus  and  Constantine  being  consuls,  both  for 
the  second  time.  * 

To  fully  understand  the  provisions  of  this 
legislation,  the  peculiar  position  of  Constantine 
must  be  taken  into  consideration.  He  was  not 
*  "Cod.  Justin.,"  III.  12,3. 


IN   THE   ANTE-NICENK   PERIOD.  229 

Himself  free  from  all  remains  of  heathen  supersti- 
tion.* It  seems  certain  that  before  his  conver- 
sion he  had  been  particularly  devoted  to  the 
worship  of  Apollo,  the  sun-god.  f  He  ruled  over 
an  empire  composed  of  Christians  and  pagans;]; 
in  perhaps  nearly  equal  numbers,  the  former 
dwelling  in  the  cities,  and  the  latter  occupying 
the  rural  districts.  The  problem  before  him  was 
to  legislate  for  the  new  faith  in  such  a  manner  as 
not  to  seem  entirely  inconsistent  with  his  old 
practices,  and  not  to  come  in  conflict  with  the 
prejudices  of  his  pagan  subjects.  These  facts 
serve  to  explain  the  peculiarities  of  this  decree. 
He  names  the  holy  day  not  the  I^ord's  day,  but  the 
*'day  of  the  sun,"  the  heathen  designation,  and 
thus  at  once  seems  to  identify  it  with  his  former 
Apollo-worship;  he  excepts  the  country  from  the 
operation  of  the  law,  and  thus  avoids  collision 
with  his  heathen  subjects.  The  emperor  may 
have  supposed  that  he  was  furnishing  an  easy 
transition  from  heathenism  to  Christianity,  espe- 
cially to  the  Platonists  of  his  time,  by  substi- 
tuting Christ  for  Apollo,  the  revealer,  under 
their  system,  of  the  supreme  God.     The  identity 

*  Gibbon's  "  Decline  and  Fall,"  chap.  20. 

t  See  Gieseler's  "  Ecclesiastical  History."  Upon  his  coins 
Constantine  had  impressed  both  the  figure  of  Apollo  and  the 
name  of  Christ ! 

X  The  word  pagan  means  "  rural." 


230  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

of  the  day  of  the  sun  and  the  Lord's  day  favored 
such  a  plan.*  It  would  be  easy  to  criticise  the 
motives  of  Constantine,  but  before  too  severe 
judgment  is  pronounced  upon  him,  he  deserves 
that  a  fair  representation  should  be  made  both  of 
his  own  prepossessions  and  of  the  special  difficul- 
ties he  had  to  encounter.  That  this  edict  shows 
the  traces  of  a  temporising  policy  does  not  dimin- 
ish its  value  as  a  proof  of  the  position  occupied 
by  the  Lord's  day  at  the  close  of  this  period,  and 
its  practical  succession  to  the  venerable  character 
of  the  Sabbath  of  the  law. 

In  this  period  flourished  Eusebius,  the  bishop 
of  Csesarea,  well  known  as  the  first  historian  of 
the  church.  He  states  that  Constantine  ap- 
pointed for  prayer  ''the  first  and  chief  of  days, 
which  is  truly  the  Lord's  day  and  the  day  of  sal- 
vation, "f  This  sheds  light  on  the  way  in  which 
Christians  regarded  the  decree  of  the  emperor. 
In  an  elaborate  eulogy  of  Constantine,  he  praises 

*  The  attempt  of  some  advocates  of  the  Saturday-Sab- 
bath to  derive  the  sacred  use  of  Sunday  from  a  weekly  hea- 
then festival  in  honor  of  the  sun  is  utterly  unfair,  for  the  very 
sufficient  reason  that  no  such  weekly  festivals  were  ever  in 
existence.  It  would  be  quite  as  fair  to  connect  the  Jewish 
Sabbath  with  Apollo  for  the  reason  that  the  number  *'  seven  " 
was  sacred  to  that  deity,  his  feasts  coming  on  the  seventh  of 
each  month ;  or  to  identify  the  observance  of  Saturday  with 
the  Roman  Saturnalia. 

t  Eusebius,  "  Life  of  Constantine,"  IV.  18. 


IN   THE   ANTE-NICENE    PERIOD.  23I 

him  for  commanding  that  all  dwellers,  whether 
on  land  or  sea,  should  meet  every  week  and  keep 
the  lyord's  day  as  a  festival,  for  the  rest  of  the 
body  and  the  nurture  of  the  soul."*  Eusebius 
was  also  a  strong  defender  of  the  I^ord's  day  as 
against  the  claims  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  which 
about  this  time  were  urged  by  the  Bbionites.  He 
thus  writes:  ''By  the  new  covenant,  the  word 
carried  forward  and  transferred  the  festival  of  the 
Sabbath  to  the  morning  light,  and  gave,  as  a 
symbol  of  true  rest,  the  Saviour  and  Lord's  day 
and  first  day  of  light  on  which  the  Saviour  of  the 
world,  after  all  his  deeds  among  men,  obtained 
victory  over  death,  "f  After  much  of  the  same 
sort,  he  goes  on  to  remark,  with  regard  to  the  old 
Sabbath  worship,  that  "these  things  we  have 
transferred  to  the  Lord's  day,  as  being  more  lord- 
ly and  chief  in  itself,  and  first,  and  worthier  than 
the  Jewish  Sabbath :  for  on  this  day  at  the  crea- 
tion God  said,  '  Let  there  be  light, '  and  there  was 
light;  and  on  this  day  on  our  souls  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  has  arisen. ' '  He  also  says  that  in 
keeping  the  Lord's  day  holy,  "we  keep  the  festi- 
val of  the  Sabbath  holily  and  spiritually,  "t  He 
accords  with  the  general  view  of  the  early  church 
that  the  Lord's  day  has  superseded  the  Jewish  Sab- 

*  "Eulogy  ofConstantine,"  c.  17. 

t  "  Comment  on  Psalm  91."  X  Ibid. 


232  THE  ABIDING   SABBATH. 

bath,  but  that  it  must  not  be  confounded  with  that 
institution,  being  in  every  way  a  higher  and  no- 
bler Sabbath.  When  we  remember  that  Kusebius 
was  doubtless  the  most  faithful  student  in  his  time 
of  the  Christian  ages  before  him,  his  testimony 
becomes  of  the  highest  value  in  settling  the  posi- 
tion of  the  lyord's  day  among  primitive  Christians. 
To  this  time  belongs  the  great  theologian  and 
defender  of  orthodoxy,  Athanasius,  the  eloquent 
bishop  of  Alexandria,  the  splendor  of  whose  genius 
has  compelled  the  admiration  alike  of  friend  and 
foe.  To  him  is  usually  ascribed  a  writing  entitled 
' '  Concerning  Sabbath  and  Circumcision. ' '  In  this 
work  he  supports  the  doctrine  that  the  primal 
Sabbath,  the  end  of  the  creation  of  the  world,  has 
passed  away,  and  the  Lord's  day,  which  begins  a 
new  spiritual  creation,  has  taken  its  place.  He 
brings  out  also  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  first 
Sabbath.  Quoting  John  5:17,  "  My  Father  work- 
eth  hitherto,"  he  argues  that  the  divine  rest  is 
not  mere  passive  repose,  for  "God  is  continually 
carrying  on  the  work  of  renewal."  "The  Sab- 
bath," he  says,  "was  made  to  give  knowledge 
of  the  Creator."*  He  thus  interprets  Psa.  118:24: 
"'This  is  the  day  which  the  Lord  hath  made.* 
And  what  can  this  day  be  but  that  of  the  Lord's 
resurrection?  What  can  it  be  but  the  day  of 
*  Athanasius,  "  Ve  S^hbai'is,"  passitn. 


IN   THE   ANTC-NICKNE   PERIOD.  233 

salvation  to  all  nations,  on  which  the  stone  which 
the  builders  rejected  is  become  the  head  of  the 
corner?  The  text  signifies  the  resurrection  day 
of  our  Saviour,  which  from  him  has  been  named 
the  Lord's  day. '  "^  In  another  WTiting  he  bitterly 
denounces  his  Arian  opponents  for  their  violation 
of  the  Ivord's  day,  and  the  cruelties  they  practised 
thereon,  t  A  still  more  remarkable  expression  is 
found  in  a  workt  very  doubtfully  ascribed  to 
Athanasius,  but  which  probably  dates  from  this 
period:  "The  Lord  has  transferred  the  day  of  the 
Sabbath  to  the  Lord's  da}^" 

In  no  better  way  can  the  testimonies  of  this 
primitive  period  of  the  Christian  church  be  closed 
than  by  reference  to  the  great  Council  of  Nicsea, 
A.  D.  325,  which  gave  the  final  expression  to 
the  early  Catholic  faith  in  that  wonderful  creed 
which,  the  last  spoken  confession  of  the  universal 
church  before  her  unhappy  sectarian  divisions, 
is  still  our  sublimest  theological  symbol  of  faith. 
This  council  does  not  enact  the  Lord's  day;  for 
that  there  was  no  necessity,  as  it  already  existed. 
Neither  did  the  council  command  its  observance, 
for  the  good  reason  that  all  Christians  were  agreed 
on  that  point,  and  the  decree  of  the  emperor  was 
sufiicient  for  all  legal  purposes.     What  the  coun- 

*  "Comment  on  Psalm  118." 

t  "  Encyclical  Letter."  J  "  De  Semente." 


234  '^HK  ABIDING   SABBATH. 

cil  did  do  was  to  secure  uniformity  of  worship 
on  the  lyord's  day.  The  following  canon  was 
enacted:  '^  Since  some  are  in  the  habit  of  kneel- 
ing on  the  Ivord's  day  and  Pentecost,  in  order  to 
better  observance  of  all  things  in  every  commu- 
nity, it  is  fitting  that,  standing  in  the  sacred 
assembly,  thanks  be  given  to  God."*  That  the 
sole  mention  of  the  Lord's  day  by  this  council  is 
a  simple  matter  of  detail  such  as  this,  furnishes 
the  most  powerful  proof  of  the  universality  of 
Lord's-day  observance  in  the  church  of  that 
period.  The  argument  from  silence  is  in  this  case 
conclusive. 

Nor  does  this  consideration  exhaust  the  force 
of  the  argument  from  silence.  The  striking  fact 
that  no  enactment  of  the  Lord's  day  can  be  found 
among  the  decrees  of  any  council  of  the  church, 
oecumenical  or  provincial,  forces  us  to  look  to  a 
higher  source  for  its  authority.  We  must  assign 
it  to  the  apostolic  age  and  invest  it  with  apostolic 
authority.  If  such  is  its  origin,  the  state  of  facts 
disclosed  by  the  history  can  easily  be  compre- 
hended; in  any  other  case  the  absence  of  authori- 
zation by  ecclesiastical  legislation  is  inexplicable. 
This  argument  may  be  thus  stated:  the  Lord's  day 
was  established  either  by  ^ostglic,-jor-h>y  eclesias-  / 
tical  authority.     For  the  former  supposition,  we 

*  Nicene  Council,  "  Canon  XX." 


IN   THE   ANTE-NICENE   PERIOD.  235 

have  the  statements  in  the  epistles  abrogating  the 
Jewish  Sabbath,  yet  affirming  the  Decalogue,  the 
use  made  of  the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  pa- 
tristic testimony  referring  the  custom  back  to 
apostolic  times.  For  the  latter  supposition  there 
is  not  a  shred  of  evidence,  but  deep,  unbroken 
silence.  The  weight  of  this  dilemma  is  crushing 
against  both  the  anti-Sabbatarians  and  the  advo- 
cates of  the  seventh-day  Sabbath.  If  they  deny 
the  apostolic  authority  of  the  lyord's-day  Sab- 
bath, let  them  account  for  its  origin.  Until  they 
can  do  this,  they  must  be  denied  a  hearing  in  the 
tribunal  of  church  history.  By  the  absence  of 
any  hint  of  its  later  institution  by  ecclesiastical 
decree,  the  Lord's  day  is  shown  to  be  of  equal 
antiquity  with  the  church  itself. 

To  the  candid  mind,  the  above  citations  of 
authority  can  lead  to  no  other  conclusion  than 
that  the  Lord's  day  was  religiously  observed  by 
the  church  of  the  first  three  centuries,  that  it  was 
held  by  them  to  be  of  divine  authority,  and  that 
it  had  fully  superseded  the  Jewish  Sabbath. 
Those  ages  of  apostolic  purity  of  doctrine  and 
practice  have  given  no  uncertain  sound  in  defence 
of  the  abiding  Sabbath  which  is  embodied  in  the 
Lord's  day. 


236  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  LORD'S   DAY  IN  THE  FOURTH 
AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES. 

"  The  Lord's  day  is  the  figure  of  the  day  never  to  be  fin- 
ished, which  has  no  evening  and  no  to-morrow,  the  life  which 
shall  never  cease  and  never  grow  old."         basil  the  great. 

The  centuries  following  the  Nicene  Council 
by  no  means  preserved  the  purity  of  doctrine  and 
practice  of  the  infant  church.  Christianity  be- 
coming a  State  religion,  the  contact  with  worldly 
power  corrupted  the  spiritual  fountains  of  the  re- 
ligious consciousness  and  life.  The  polity  which 
made  the  church  an  arm  of  the  temporal  power 
was  not  truly  Christian,  but  Jewish.  It  was  an 
attempt  to  realize  the  false  Messianic  dream  of 
Israel  in  an  external  dominion.  The  corruptions 
which  crept  into  the  church,  culminating  in  the 
spiritual  empire  of  the  Papacy,  which  is  at  once 
the  most  remarkable  fact  and  the  deepest  shadow 
of  the  world's  history,  all  took  the  shape  of  a 
rank  growth  of  legalism  and  ritualism  in  luxuri- 
ant variety  of  forms.  The  multiplication  of  fasts 
and  festivals  was  among  the  very  first  results  of 
the  new  polity.  To  justify  these  new  holidays, 
Scripture  must  be  resorted  to  for  arguments,  and 


IN  THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES.   237 

the  Jewish  feast-days  furnished  a  ready  store  of 
precedents.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  Sabbath 
of  the  law,  in  some  quarters,  came  in  for  a  share 
of  reverence,  and  we  can  note,  in  some  places,  a 
transient  revival  of  its  observance  in  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries.  * 

Notwithstanding  this,  the  sum  of  testimonies 
of  the  great  writers  of  this  period  is  for  the  sanc- 
tity of  the  Lord's  day,  to  which  they  ascribe  the 
moral  authority  of  the  legal  Sabbath,  which  they 
declare  annulled.  To  give  all  references  to  the 
Sabbath  and  Lord's  day  w^hich  these  years  afford 
would  consume  too  much  space.     Only  the  most 

^  The  attempt  is  sometimes  made  to  state  the  case  pre- 
cisely opposite,  claiming  that  disregard  of  the  seventh  day 
grew  up  in  the  fourth  century.  This  complete  perversion  of 
the  fact  is  accomplished  by  placing  the  forged  so-called  "Apos- 
tolical Constitutions  "  about  two  hundred  years  earlier  than 
they  were  written.  Indeed,  it  is  a  fair  rule  of  criticism  to 
place  any  Christian  writing  which  recognizes  any  obligation 
to  observe  the  Saturday-Sabbath  at  least  as  late  as  the  third 
century  for  that  very  reason.  Thus  the  "  Apostolical  Con- 
stitutions "  appear  to  be  a  later  expansion  of  germs  found  in 
the  "  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  "  and  elsewhere.  And 
the  larger  Epistle  of  Ignatius  to  the  Magnesians  is  in  like 
manner  an  enlargement,  by  some  Oriental  ritualist,  of  the  gen- 
uine document.  Reference  is  here  made  to  these  facts  and 
principles  for  the  reason  that  lately  there  has  been  consider- 
able literary  activity  among  the  advocates  of  the  Saturday- 
Sabbath  on  this  very  point.  The  attempt  to  model  American 
Christianity  after  the  pattern  of  the  Abyssinian  Church  will 
hardly  be  successful. 


238  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

important,  therefore,  will  be  cited.  The  evi- 
dence of  this  period  consists  of  three  kinds :  im- 
perial edicts,  the  decrees  of  provincial  councils, 
and  passages  from  ecclesiastical  writers. 

The  Emperor  Constantine  enacted  additional 
laws  for  Sunday  observance,  prohibiting  military 
exercises  and  all  judicial  proceedings,  excepting 
the  manumission  of  slaves.  * 

Theodosius  the  Great,  A.  D.  386,  extended 
the  prohibitions  of  labor  to  the  rural  districts,  for- 
bidding all  transaction  of  business  and  public 
amusements,  f 

Leo,  A.  D.  469,  added  a  decree,  which  com- 
manded with  great  detail : 

'*  The  Lord's  day  we  decree  to  be  always  hon- 
ored and  revered.  On  it  let  there  be  exemption 
from  executions;  no  summons  shall  be  served  on 
any  one;  let  no  exaction  of  security  for  debts  be 
required;  let  court  attendants  be  silent;  let  the 
advocate  rest  from  his  pleadings;  let  that  day  be 
a  stranger  to  lawsuits;  let  the  court-criers'  voices 
be  stilled;  let  litigants  have  repose  from  con- 
troversy and  time  of  truce;  let  adversaries  have 
a  chance  to  meet  each  other  without  fear.  Nor, 
in  any  way,  on  this  religious  day  can  we  relax 
the  law  of  rest,  or  permit  any  one  to  engage  in 

*  Eusebius,  "  De  Vita  Constantini,"  IV.  18,  20. 
t  Coda  Theodos.,  XI.  7,  13;  XV.  5,  2. 


IN  THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES.    239 

indecent  pleasures.  Nothing  can  excuse  on  the 
same  day  theatrical  representations,  the  circus,  or 
the  pitiful  spectacle  of  wild  beasts;  and  the  cele- 
bration of  our  birthday,  if  it  should  happen  to  fall 
on  that  day,  must  be  deferred.  If  any  one  shall 
be  present  at  any  such  spectacle  on  this  feast-day, 
or  dares  to  despise  the  requirements  of  this  law, 
on  pretence  of  public  or  private  business,  his  pat- 
rimony shall  be  confiscated. ' '  * 

Besides  these,  the  Theodosian  and  Justinian 
Codes  abound  in  enactments  regulating  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Lord's  day  and  other  holidays. f 
This  testimony  of  public  records  is  the  highest 
type  of  evidence. 

Several  provincial  councils  of  the  church  dur- 
ing this  period  mention  the  Lord's  da}^  That  of 
Sardica,  A.  D.  350,  enforces  the  duty  of  worship 
on  the  Lord's  day,  and  threatens  excommunica- 
tion to  any  resident  of  a  town  who  shall  be  absent 
for  three  Lord's  days  together  from  the  church.  J 
The  Council  of  Gangra,  A.  D.  365,  says,  "If  any 
one  fast  on  the  Lord's  day,  let  him  be  anathe- 
ma. "  §  At  Laodicsea,  A.  D.  363,  it  was  decreed  : 
*' Christians  shall  not  Judai^e  and  be  idle  on  the 

*  "Cod.Justin./'III.  12,  II. 

t  "  Cod.  Theodos.,"  II.  8,  i ;  VIII.  8,  i ;  XV.  5,  5. 

X  Cone.  Sardica,  "  Canon  XI." 

§  Cone.  Gangra,  "  Canon  XVIII." 

Abiding  Sabbath.  1 6 


^l 


240  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

Sabbath,  but  shall  work  on  that  day;  but  the 
Lord's  day  they  shall  especially  honor,  and  shall, 
as  being  Christians,  so  far  as  may  be,  do  no  work 
on  that  day.  If  they  be  found  Judai^ing,  let 
them  be  anathema  from  Christ. ' '  *  Here  is  a  dis- 
tinct condemnation  of  the  Judai^ing  tendencies 
which  were  growing  up  at  this  time,  largely 
manifested  in  giving  an  honor  to  the  seventh  day 
which  it  surely  had  not  received  in  the  earlier 
years  of  the  church.  The  Council  of  Antioch,  A. 
D.  340,  the  Frst  Council  of  Toledo,  and  the  Fourth 
Council  of  Carthage,  all  passed  canons  bearing  on 
the  religious  observance  of  the  day. 

To  this  period  probably  belongs  the  remarka- 
ble forgery  which  assumes  the  name  of  '  *  Apostol- 
ical Constitutions."  Although  falsely  attributed 
to  Clement  of  Rome,  and  pretending  to  derive  its 
rules  from  the  mouth  of  the  holy  apostles  them- 
selves, no  trace  of  its  existence  can  be  found  ear- 
lier than  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century, 
when  Epiphanius  refers  to  a  work  by  that  title 
which  he  acknowledges  is  held  by  many  to  be  of 
doubtful  authority.  It  is  even  uncertain  whether 
he  is  referring  to  this  writing  at  all.  Such  is  the 
scanty  authority  of  this  much-quoted  composition, 

*  Cone.  Laodic,  "  Canon  XXIX."  In  this  Canon  the 
phrase,  "  so  far  as  possible,"  is  probably  to  be  explained  by 
the  fact  that  many  Christians  were  not  masters  of  their  own 
time.    It  is,  besides,  a  permission  of  "  works  of  necessity." 


IN  THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES.  241 

the  citadel  of  those  who  to-day  advocate  the  Sat- 
urday-Sabbath. (For  further  discussion  of  its 
authenticity,  see  Appendix  C.) 

Yet  this  work  testifies  to  the  growing  rever- 
ence for  the  Lord's  day,  every^where  joining  it 
with  the  Jewish  Sabbath  as  obligatory  on  Chris- 
tians. Here  are  some  of  the  regulations  which  it 
prescribes  for  the  church :  ' '  He  is  guilty  of  sin 
who  fasts  on  the  Lord's  day  or  Pentecost."* 
**Keep  as  festivals  the  Sabbath  and  the  Lord's 
day."t  "Every  Sabbath,  except  the  first,  and 
every  Lord's  day,  gather  in  your  assemblies  and 
rejoice. "J  The  first  Sabbath  excepted  by  this 
rule  was  the  Saturday  following  Good  Friday  in 
Passion  week.  ' '  I  Peter  and  I  Paul  give  com- 
mand :  Let  your  servants  work  five  days,  but  on 
Sabbath  and  Lord's  day  let  them  be  at  rest  and 
at  church  for  instruction  in  religion.  "§  *' Espe- 
cially on  the  day  of  the  Sabbath  and  on  the  Lord's 
day,  on  which  the  Lord  arose,  most  zealously  as- 
semble. "|i 

These  passages  indicate  both  the  respect  given 
to  the  first  day  and  the  extent  to  which  the  sev- 
enth day,  observed  in  the  Western  church  as  a  fast 
of  preparation  for  the  Lord's  day,  had  gradually, 

*  "Apostolical  Constitutions,"  V.  20. 

t  Ibid,  VII.  23.  t  Ibid,  V.  20.  §  Ibid,  VIII.  33.    , 

II  Ibid,  II.  59. 


242  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

under  the  growing  ritualistic  feeling  in  the  East- 
ern church,  where  Jews  abounded,  begun  to  as- 
sume its  old  position.  The  observance  of  both 
days  thus  imposed  on  some  of  the  Eastern  church- 
es has  survived  to  this  time  in  various  localities, 
especially  in  the  Ethiopian  church.  This  modern 
seventh-day  church  is  a  witness  to  the  essentially 
Judaic  character  of  this  fifth  century  movement. 
Circumcision  and  other  Jewish  rites  are  still  ob- 
served among  nominal  Christians  in  the  high- 
lands of  Ethiopia.  *  There  are  traces  of  the  same 
tendency  among  the  Nestorians  of  Asia  Minor. 
Yet  these  churches  are  sometimes  quoted  as  hav- 
ing longest  preserved  the  pure  apostolic  tradition 
with  regard  to  the  Sabbath.  From  such  purity 
of  doctrine  and  practice  may  the  church  be  gra- 
ciously preserved  !  It  should  be  remarked  that 
the  essentially  unapostolic  character  of  the  "Apos- 
tolical Constitutions ' '  is  fully  established  by  the 
fact  that  they  fill  well  nigh  half  the  year  with 
feast  days.  The  evidence  shows  that  the  one 
Christian  festival  was  gradually  being  obscured 
by  multiplied  holidays.  That  these  "Constitu- 
tions" had  most  influence  in  the  East,  and  were 
never  received  by  the  Western  church,  was  not 
because  of  any  lack  of  ritualistic  tendency  in  the 

*  Harris*  "Highlands  of  Ethiopia,"  Vol.  III.  pp.  150,  151. 
See  also  Dr.  A.  Grant's  "  Nestorians." 


IN  THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES.  243 

latter.  It  seems  very  possible  that  two  rest-days 
in  a  week,  so  grateful  to  the  Oriental  character, 
could  not  be  imposed  on  the  more  energetic  na- 
tions of  the  West. 

While  we  see  some  traces  of  a  Judaic  revival 
at  this  time,  yet  the  general  weight  of  the  eccle- 
siastical writers  of  this  period  is  on  the  side  of  the 
superior  claims  of  the  Lord's  day  and  its  superses- 
sion to  the  Sabbath  of  the  law. 

Hilary,  bishop  of  Poictiers,  who  lived  about 
A.  D.  350,  says  in  an  exposition  of  the  ninety- 
second  Psalm :  * '  While  the  name  and  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  may  have  been  placed  on  the  sev- 
enth day,  nevertheless  we  on  the  eighth  day, 
which  is  indeed  the  first,  enjoy  the  blessedness  of 
a  perfect  Sabbath."*  The  truly  Sabbatic  char- 
acter of  the  Lord's  day  could  hardly  be  more 
strongly  expressed. 

Ambrose  of  Milan,  A.  D.  370,  testifies:  "For 
as  soon  as  the  Lord's  day  began  to  excel,  the  Sab- 
bath, which  had  been  first,  began  to  be  considered 
second  from  the  first,  for  the  first  rest  failed,  but 
the  second  succeeded. "t  He  also  says,  "On  the 
seventh  day  we  go  to  the  sepulchre,  which  is  a 
symbol  of  the  rest  on  the  coming  day. "J     In  the 

*  Hilary,  "  On  Psalm  92." 

t  Ambrose  of  Milan,  "  On  Psalm  47." 

X  "  De  Fid.  Res.,"  II.  2. 


244  'i'he:  abiding  sabbath. 

latter  passage  there  is  probable  reference  to  the 
not  uncommon  Saturday  fast  in  preparation  for 
Sunday. 

Augustine,  the  learned  and  eloquent  bishop  of 
Hippo,  is  undoubtedly  the  greatest  figure  of  this 
age.  His  life  covers  the  last  years  of  the  fourth 
and  the  earlier  years  of  the  fifth  century.  Speak- 
ing of  fasting  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  he  says  : 
^ '  The  reason  of  this  is  easy  to  find,  for  the  Roman 
Church  fasts  on  the  Sabbath  day,  as  also  a  few  oth- 
ers here  and  there;  but  to  fast  on  the  I^ord's  day  is 
a  great  scandal. "  *  In  another  place  he  claims  that 
"the  Lord's  day  was  declared  not  to  Jews,  but  to 
Christians,  by  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord,  and 
from  that  time  its  festivities  began  to  be  held. ' '  f 
He  thus  dates  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  day 
back  to  apostolic  times  and  to  the  very  date  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  Lord.  There  is  a  sermonj 
usually  published  in  the  w^orks  of  St.  Augustine 
and  ascribed  to  him,  but  with  considerable  doubt, 
in  which  occurs  this  passage:  "And  so  far  have 
the  holy  doctors  of  the  church  decreed  that  all  the 
glory  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  should  be  transferred 
to  the  Lord's  day,  that  what  they  observed  in  fig- 
ure we  celebrate  in  reality.  Resting  from  all 
agricultural  labor  and  all  business,  we  engage  in 

*  Augustine,  "  Epistle  36,  Ad  Casulanum." 

t  "  Epistle  55."  X  "  De  Tempore." 


IN  THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES.  245 

divine  worship  alone."  Even  if  this  sermon  is 
not  properly  ascribed  to  the  great  Latin  Father, 
it  is  still  a  testimony  of  considerable  antiquity  to 
the  fact  that  the  I^ord's  day  was  regarded  as  a 
Christian  Sabbath. 

Next  may  be  quoted  Jerome,  A.  D.  390,  the 
first  Hebrew  scholar  of  the  church  of  his  age  and 
the  leader  in  all  subsequent  Christian  scholar- 
ship. In  an  account  of  the  monastic  institutions 
of  Egypt  he  gives  this  account  of  their  employ- 
ment of  the  lyord's  day:  '^On  the  Lord's  day  they 
occupy  themselves  in  prayer  and.  reading  only.'* 
*'0n  the  Lord's  day  only  they  went  to  church, 
from  which  they  dwelt  at  a  distance."*  Positive 
proof  is  thus  furnished  that  whatever  observance 
of  the  seventh  day  may  have  existed  at  this  time, 
the  Lord's  day  was  considered  in  every  way  most 
worthy  of  respect,  and  when  widely-scattered  wor- 
shippers could  not  meet  more  frequently,  was  the 
sole  day  appointed  for  public  worship.  Jerome, 
in  a  comment  on  the  one  hundred  and  eighteenth 
Psalm,  writes  :  "  '  This  is  the  day  that  the  Lord 
hath  made ;  we  will  rejoice  and  be  glad  in  it. '  The 
Lord,  indeed,  hath  made  all  days,  but  other  days 
may  be  for  Jews  or  heretics  or  heathen.  The 
Lord's  day,  the  day  of  resurrection,  the  Chris- 
tians* day,  is  our  day,  because  on  it  the  Lord,  a 
*  Jerome,  *'  Epistles  22  and  108.'* 


246  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

victor,  ascended  to  the  Father.  If  heathen  call 
it  the  day  of  the  sun,  we  most  willingly  confess 
it,  for  on  this  day  light  dawned  on  the  world,  and 
on  this  day  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  arose."* 

Chrysostom,  the  "Golden-mouthed,"  so  called 
from  his  brilliant  rhetorical  gifts,  lived  about  A.  D. 
398.  In  a  comment  on  the  appointment  of  the 
first  Sabbath,  he  says:  "  Hence  in  these  first  things 
God  has  enigmatically  offered  us  a  lesson,  teach- 
ing that  the  first  day  in  the  cycle  of  the  week  is 
placed  above  all  the  rest  and  set  apart  for  the  work 
of  the  Spirit,  "t  It  is  especially  to  be  noted  that 
this  author  thus  connects  the  I^ord's  day  not  with 
the  Jewish  Sabbath,  but  with  the  primal  Sabbath 
of  creation.  Chrysostom  also  discoursed  on  the 
passage  in  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians 
where  Paul  appoints  the  first  day  of  the  week  for 
collections,  i  Cor.  16  :  i,  2,  and  upon  the  sermon 
of  Paul  at  Troas  on  that  day.  Acts  20  : 7,  using 
these  instances  to  enforce  the  obligation  of  the 
Lord's  day-t 

Some  of  the  above  writers  and  others  of  the 
same  century,  especially  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  men- 
tion the  observance  of  Saturday,  but  always  in 
connection  with  the  Lord's  day.      Gregory,  in- 

*  "Exposition  of  Psalm  118." 

t  Chrysostom,  "  Homily  10  on  Genesis." 

X  See  his  homilies  on  the  texts  referred  to. 


IN  THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES.  247 

deed,  calls  tliem  ''twin-days,"  but  Augustine, 
Jerome,  and  indeed  the  greater  number  of  the 
post-Nicene  Fathers,  perfectly  agree  with  all 
ante-Nicene  authority  in  rejecting  the  Jewish 
Sabbath.  The  same  remark  will  apply  to  the 
authorities  of  the  fifth  century,  which  will  not  be 
given  in  detail,  as  they  would  only  be  wearisome 
repetitions  of  the  words  already  quoted.  Among 
the  witnesses  that  might  be  cited  in  this  century 
are  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  Maximus  of  Turin,  and 
Leo  of  Rome.  With  these  agree  Socrates,  Sozo- 
monen,  and  Theodoret,  the  ecclesiastical  histori- 
ans of  the  same  age. 

One  passage  only  must  suffice.  It  is  an  ex- 
tract from  a  poem  written  by  Coelius  Sedulius,  a 
presbyter  who  lived  near  the  end  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury.    He  writes: 

"  At  last,  after  the  sorrowful  Sabbath,  a  happy 
day  began  to  shine,  which  has  received  from  the 
Lord,  its  Master,  the  crown  of  his  high  name,  and 
first  deserved  to  see  the  new-born  world  and  the 
risen  Christ.  For  while  Genesis  calls  the  seventh 
day  Sabbath,  it  is  clear  that  this  is  the  chief  day 
of  the  world  to  v/hich  the  glory  of  the  King  has 
now  also  given  preeminence  by  the  splendor  of  his 
victory. ' '  * 

As  certainly  as  any  historical  fact  can  be  es- 

*  C.  Sedulius,  "  Hymn  of  the  Resurrection,"  Book  V. 


248  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

tablished,  it  is  proved  that  the  Christian  church 
before  the  sixth  century  honored  the  I^ord's  day 
above  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  that  they  declared  the 
latter  to  be  annulled  and  no  longer  binding,  and 
that  its  meaning  had  been  fully  transferred  to  the 
former.  A  Christian  Sabbath  has  come  into  ex- 
istence, and  to  it  henceforth  attaches  all  the  au- 
thority and  obligation  of  the  eternal  Sabbatic 
law. 


TH£:  FIFTH  CE:nTURY  TO  THE  PRESE:nT.    249 


CHAPTER  VII. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  LORD'S  DAY  FROM  THE  FIFTH 
CENTURY  TO  THE  PRESENT. 

"  God  therefore  first  rested,  then  blessed  this  rest,  that  in 
all  ages  it  might  be  sacred  among  men ;  in  other  words,  he 
consecrated  every  seventh  day  to  rest,  that  his  own  example 
might  be  a  perpetual  rule."  melanchthon. 

Here  are  a  thousand  years,  the  strangest  and 
most  momentous  years,  perhaps,  of  all  human 
history,  our  midnight  ignorance  of  which  we 
have  embodied  in  an  epithet — the  *'  Dark  Ages.'' 
Upon  the  seething  deluge  of  those  forceful  centu- 
ries in  which  modern  Europe  was  making,  still 
floated  the  ark  of  the  IvOrd's  day. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  give  detailed  testi- 
monies from  the  writers  of  the  Middle  Ages  as  to 
the  regard  shown  to  the  Lord's  day.  Rulers, 
such  as  Leo  the  philosopher,  Charlemagne,  Al- 
fred the  Great,  and  many  others,  enacted  laws 
forbidding  secular  work  on  that  day.  Numerous 
councils  of  the  church  confirmed  and  enforced  its 
authority.  Such  writers  as  the  venerable  Bede, 
Bernard,  Alexander  of  Hales,  Anselm,  and  Thom- 
as Aquinas  stated  the  opinion  of  their  time  in 


250  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

favor  of  its  observance,  and  declared  it  a  custom 
derived  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  church. 

So  far  from  there  being  any  relaxation  of  its 
requirements,  the  danger  seems  to  have  been  in 
the  direction  of  a  Pharisaic  strictness  which  was 
foreign  to  its  true  spirit.  Thus  Tostatus,  bishop 
of  Avila,  who  lived  in  the  fourteenth  century,  de- 
clares that  food  may  be  prepared  on  the  I^ord's 
day,  but  the  dishes  must  not  be  washed  until  the 
next  day;  nor  may  a  cook  who  is  only  hired  by 
the  day  even  prepare  food ;  to  be  permitted  to  do 
so  he  must  be  hired  by  the  month  or  year.  It  is 
easy  to  see  how  fully  accordant  w^ith  the  growing 
spirit  of  Roman  Christianity  was  the  old  Jewish 
ceremonialism.  This  spirit  manifested  itself  most 
fully  in  the  multiplication  of  festivals  in  burden- 
some numbers.  This  went  so  far,  indeed,  that 
even  since  the  Reformation  the  catechism  taught 
for  the  last  three  hundred  years  in  Italy,  written 
by  order  of  Pope  Clement  VIII. ,  by  the  celebra- 
ted Bellarmine,  gives  as  its  version  of  the  Fourth 
Commandment,  "Remember  to  keep  holy  the 
festivals."  ("Ricordati  di  sanctificare  le  feste.") 
It  is  evident  that  this  must  necessarily  end  in 
levelling  the  Lord's  day  to  the  grade  of  the  other 
inferior  holidays,  and,  by  insisting  on  the  sanctity 
of  all,  really  destroying  the  sacredness  of  any. 
That  such  has  been  the  result  is  confirmed  by  the 


THE  FIFTH  CENTURY  TO  THE  PRESENT.    251 

existing  status  of  the  Christian  Sabbath  all  over 
the  continent  of  Europe. 

Yet  the  real  state  of  theological  opinion  dur- 
ing these  centuries  is  pretty  fairly  expressed  by 
the  words  of  Alcuin,  A.  D.  796,  who  says  that 
*' Christian  custom  has  fitly  transferred  the  ob- 
servation of  the  Jewish  Sabbath  to  the  Lord's 
day;"*  and  Petrus  Alphonsus  (12th  century),  who 
writes  that  "the  Lord's  day,  that  is,  the  day  of 
resurrection,  is  the  Sabbath  of  Christians;"!  and 
Anselm,  A.  D.  iioo,  who  says,  "The  vacation  of 
the  Lord's  day  is  the  moral  part  of  the  Decalogue 
in  the  time  of  grace,  as  the  seventh  day  was  in 
the  time  of  the  law;"  and  "the  observance  of  a 
day  indeterminately,  that  at  some  time  we  should 
attend  on  God,  is  moral  in  nature  and  immutable, 
but  the  observance  of  a  determinate  time  is  moral 
by  discipline,  by  the  adding  of  divine  institution. 
When  that  time  ought  to  be  is  not  for  man  to 
determine,  but  God. "J  These  three  examples 
fairly  represent  the  position  of  the  church  of  the 
Middle  Ages. 

Upon  this  night  of  history,  w^th  its  strange 
and  sometimes  wildly  beautiful  dreams,  the  morn- 
ing dawned  at  last.     Heralded  by  spasmodic  at- 

*  Quoted  in  Heylin,  "History  of  the  Sabbatii." 

t  See  Heylin,  ibid. 

X  Quoted  in  Young's,  "Dies  Dominica,"  46. 


252  THE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

tempts  at  reformation  of  the  church,  at  last  the 
son  of  a  German  miner,  with  words  which  were 
*'half  battles,'^  struck  away  the  foundation  of 
divine  right  on  which  the  claims  of  pontiff  and 
king  were  builded,  and  asserted  a  right  of  private 
judgment,  growing  out  of  the  personal  relations 
of  every  man  to  "God  who  justifieth." 

It  is  a  matter  for  'the  deepest  regret  that  the 
reformers  failed  to  perceive  the  true  doctrine  of 
the  Sabbath ;  that  they,  for  the  most  part,  ignored 
its  moral  obligation,  and  sustained  its  existence 
largely  on  the  grounds  of  expediency.  Yet  their 
position  is  not  entirely  inexcusable.  Primarily, 
the  Reformation  was  a  reaction  against  the  cere- 
monialism of  Rome,  and  by  the  very  logic  of 
their  situation  they  placed  themselves  in  much 
the  same  attitude  towards  the  Lord's  day  that  the 
apostles  and  the  early  church  occupied  towards 
the  Jewish  Sabbath.  It  had  become  degraded  to 
a  common  level  with  multitudinous  feast-days,  and 
it  was  hard  for  them  to  feel  any  more  respect  for 
it  than  for  the  superstitious  observances  with 
which  it  was  accompanied.  In  clearing  away 
the  rubbish,  that  they  might  build  anew  on  its 
primitive  foundations  the  church  of  Christ,  there 
was  great  danger  that  valuable  and  even  precious 
stones  should  be  cast  aside.  This  is  the  apology 
which  Baxter  makes  for  them: 


THE  FIFTH  CENTURY  TO  THE  PRESENT.    253 

' '  For  Calvin  and  Be^a,  and  the  great  divines 
of  the  foreign  churches,  you  must  remember  that 
they  came  newly  out  of  popery,  and  had  seen  the 
Ivord's  day  and  a  superabundance  of  other  human 
holidays  imposed  on  the  churches  to  be  ceremoni- 
ously observed,  and  they  did  not  all  of  them  so 
clearly  as  they  ought  discern  the  difference  be- 
tween the  Lord's  day  and  those  holidays,  or 
church  festivals,  and  so  did  too  promiscuously 
conjoin  them  in  their  reproofs  of  the  burdens  im- 
posed on  the  church  .  .  .  The  devil  hath  been  a 
great  undoer  by  overdoing.  When  he  knew  not 
how  else  to  cast  out  the  holy  observation  of  the 
Lord's  day  with  zealous  people,  he  found  out  the 
trick  of  devising  so  many  days,  called  holy  days, 
to  set  up  by  it,  that  the  people  might  perceive 
that  the  observation  of  them  all  as  holy  was 
never  to  be  expected. ' '  * 

The  reformers  are  not  always  consistent  with 
themselves  or  with  each  other  in  their  views  on 
the  Lord's  day.  The  fact  is,  they  could  not  help 
feeling  something  of  the  force  of  an  institution  of 
so  great  antiquity  and  such  strong  divine  sanc- 
tions, and  they  could  not  do  away  with  the  abso- 
lute necessity  of  a  day  for  worship.  Hence  their 
practical  teachings  are  far  better  than  their  theo- 
ries on  the  subject.  Yet  the  Continental  Sunday 
*  Baxter, "  Divine  Appointment  of  the  Lord's  Day,"  127, 150. 


254  I'HE   ABIDING  SABBATH. 

of  to-day  is  sufficient  proof  that  reasons  of  expe- 
diency and  utility  alone  are  not  a  sufficient  basis 
on  which  to  found  a  Sabbath.  The  theories  of 
the  reformers  have  left  an  evil  legacy  in  practices 
from  which  they  themselves  would  have  revolted. 
IvUther,  in  the  often -quoted  passage  in  the 
*' Table  Talk,"  says  almost  savagely,  ''If  any- 
where the  day  is  made  holy  for  the  mere  day's 
sake,  if  anywhere  any  one  sets  up  its  observance 
on  a  Jewish  foundation,  then  I  order  you  to  work 
on  it,  to  ride  on  it,  to  dance  on  it,  to  feast  on  it, 
to  do  anything  that  shall  remove  this  encroach- 
ment on  Christian  liberty."  Perhaps  this  is  none 
too  strong  as  directed  against  superstitious  bond- 
age to  ' '  times  and  seasons, ' '  but  it  is  certainly  so 
stated  as  to  lead  away  from  any  reverence  for  the 
Sabbatic  institution.  Yet  he  expressly  excepts 
the  Lord's  day  from  the  feasts  which  he  wishes 
abolished.  *'  Let  all  feasts  be  abolished,  and  the 
Lord's  day  only  retained."*  "Would  that  there 
were  no  feast  among  Christians  except  the  Lord's 
Day!"t  And  this  same  Luther  in  his  later  days 
explains  his  whole  position  with  regard  to  the  law 
thus:  "If  at  the  outset  I  inveighed  against  the 
law  both  from  the  pulpit  and  in  my  writings,  the 
reason  was  that  the  Christian  church  at  the  time 

*  "  Address  to  the  German  Nobility." 
t  "  De  Bona  Opera." 


THE  FIFTH  CENTURY  TO  THE  PRESENT.    255 

was  overladen  with  superstitions,  under  whicli 
Christ  was  altogether  buried  and  hidden,  and  that 
I  groaned  to  save  and  liberate  pious  and  God-fear- 
ing souls  from  this  tyranny  over  the  conscience. 
But  I  have  never  rejected  the  law."*  This  pas- 
sage is  a  perfect  explanation  of  the  seeming  anti- 
nomianism  of  the  reformers. 

The  same  remark  will  apply  to  Calvin.  His 
whole  soul  revolted  against  the  superstitious  holi- 
days of  Rome  which  had  so  multiplied  that  Be^a 
says  "the  third  part  of  the  year  passed  away  in 
idle  festivals."  Calvin  says  in  his  "Institutes:" 
' '  Nor  do  I  so  value  the  septenary  number  as  to 
bind  the  church  to  its  servitude,  nor  shall  I  con- 
demn the  churches  which  observe  other  days  for 
their  meetings."  He  declares  that  there  is  noth- 
ing moral  in  the  Fourth  Commandment.  Never- 
theless he  could  say  at  another  time,  "He  who 
setteth  at  naught  the  Sabbath  day  has  cast  under 
foot  all  God's  service  as  much  as  is  in  him ;  and 
if  the  Sabbath  day  be  not  observed,  all  the  rest 
shall  be  worth  nothing. "  f  The  very  comments  in 
the  "Institutes"  on  the  Fourth  Commandment, 
so  often  quoted  to  show  his  opposition  to  the  Sab- 
bath, affirm  in  many  forms  of  speech  the  necessity 
of  such  an  institution  and  assert  its  apostolic  ori- 
gin. It  is  to  be  regretted,  however,  that  the  great 
*  Michelet,  "  Life  of  Luther."  f  "  Sermon,"  Deut.  5. 

Abiding  Sabbath.  I  7 


256  THE  ABIDING   SABBATH. 

Swiss  reformer  should  not  by  his  fidelity  have  left 
as  deep  a  mark  in  favor  of  a  holy  Lord's  day  on 
the  Continent  as  did  Knox  in  Scotland. 

It  is  needless  to  quote  from  the  Lutheran  and 
Reformed  Confessions.  They  agree  in  their  main 
ground:  the  Sabbath  is  abrogated,  but  for  moral 
discipline,  for  stated  worship,  and  for  the  sake  of 
rest,  the  Lord's  day,  received  from  the  earliest 
days  of  the  church,  should  be  observed.  The 
language  of  the  Helvetic  Confession  is  in  sub- 
stance the  language  of  all:  "We  do  not  believe 
either  that  one  day  is  sacred  above  another,  or 
that  mere  rest  is  in  itself  pleasing  to  God.  We 
keep  a  Lord's  day,  not  a  Sabbath  day,  by  an  un- 
constrained observance. ' ' 

That  we  believe  the  Reformation  to  have  been 
a  great  spiritual  movement  and  a  great  advance 
towards  gospel  truth,  and  that  we  believe  the 
leaders  in  that  movement  to  have  been  good  and 
great  men,  does  not  and  cannot  give  to  their 
words  any  authority  on  such  a  question  as  this 
save  such  as  they  may  derive  from  the  Word  of 
God.  We  must  remember  that  this  was  not  the 
only  Commandment  of  the  Ten  in  regard  to  which 
they  w^ere  careless,  not  to  say  erroneous,  in  their 
views.*     The  evils  of  the  antinomian  teaching 

*  Without  subscribing  to  Romish  slanders,  there  is  too 
much  truth  in  the  charge  of  certain  hiwless  tendencies  among 


THB  FIFTH  CENTURY  TO  THE  PRESENT.    257 

into  which  they  were  too  frequently  led  in  their 
antagonism  to  salvation  by  works  and  their  asser- 
tion of  the  ''right  of  private  judgment"  have  not 
wholly  left  Protestantism  even  at  this  late  day. 
It  is  easy  to  note  in  their  language  on  this  subject 
a  very  different  tone  from  that  used  by  the  Fathers 
of  the  early  church.  It  cannot  fail  to  be  seen  that 
they  did  not  fully  restore  primitive  purity  of  doc- 
trine and  practice.  Not  having  the  insight  to 
discover  the  true  abiding  Sabbath  and  bring  it 
forth  to  the  world,  together  with  the  gospel  truth 
which  they  rescued  from  the  past,  they  only  en- 
deavored to  destroy  the  corrupted  institution  that 
they  found.  Yet  we  cannot  be  too  grateful  that 
they  left  us  the  institution  itself  As  long  as  that 
abides  its  meanings  w411  ever  come  out  of  the 
realm  of  spiritual  thought  and  embody  themselves 
under  its  forms  with  constant  instruction  to  the 
children  of  men. 

some  of  the  reformers.  The  freedom  of  divorce,  largely  sanc- 
tioned by  their  teaching,  is  the  reproach  of  Protestant  States. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  quote  in  proof  the  remarks  of  Luther, 
Bucer,  and  Melanchthon  on  the  marriage  relation.  The  origin 
of  the  English  Church  itself  is  not  without  the  stain  of  the  too 
facile  connivance  of  Cranmer  with  Henry  VIII.  in  his  mar- 
riage with  Anne  Boleyn.  The  case  of  Milton  is  also  in  point. 
He  is  well  known  to  have  opposed  the  Sabbath.  He  ended 
by  denouncing  marriage  and  by  entire  neglect  of  worship. 
No  question  is  more  difficult  or  more  important  to  Protes- 
tantism than  the  reconciliation  of  freedom  and  authority, 
grace  and  works. 


258  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

And  the  Reformed  churches  did  another  ser- 
vice to  the  cause  of  Sabbath  observance.  In  their 
catechisms  the  Decalogue  was  taught  and  ex- 
pounded. It  was  placed  in  the  service  for  the 
Holy  Eucharist  of  the  English  Church  in  1552, 
and  the  homilies  of  the  church  say:  "Albeit  this 
commandment  of  God  doth  not  bind  Christians  so 
straitly  to  observe  the  utter  ceremonies  of  the  Sab- 
bath day  as  it  was  given  to  the  Jews,  as  touching 
the  forbearing  of  work  and  labor  in  time  of  neces- 
sity and  as  keeping  the  precise  seventh  day  after 
the  manner  of  the  Jew^s;  for  we  now  keep  the  first 
day,  which  is  the  Sunday,  and  we  make  that  our 
Sabbath,  that  is,  our  day  of  rest,  in  honor  of  our 
Saviour  Christ,  who  as  upon  that  day  rose  from 
death,  conquering  the  same  most  triumphantly ; 
yet  notwithstanding,  w^hatever  is  found  in  the 
commandment  appertaining  to  the  law  of  nature 
as  a  thing  most  godly,  most  just,  and  most  need- 
ful for  the  setting  forth  of  God's  glory,  it  ought 
to  be  retained  and  kept  of  all  good  Christian  peo- 
ple."* 

So  also  the  Synod  of  Dort,  A.  D.  1618-19,  in 
one  of  the  supplementary  sessions  fixed  six  points 
as  to  the  Sabbath,  viz. :  i.  That  the  Fourth  Com- 
mandment contains  both  ceremonial  and  moral 
elements.  2.  The  former  consists  in  the  rigid 
*  Homily  "  On  the  Time  and  Place  of  Prayer." 


THE  FIFTH  CENTURY  TO  THE  PRESENT.    259 

employment  of  the  exact  seventh,  day.  3.  The 
moral  is  the  assignment  of  a  stated  day  for  wor- 
ship. 4.  The  Jewish  Sabbath  is  abolished,  and 
Christians  are  under  solemn  obligation  to  keep 
the  Lord's  day.  5.  This  day  has  been  observed 
by  the  church  from  apostolic  times.  6.  All  work, 
save  of  charity  and  necessity,  is  condemned. 

With  still  greater  precision  the  Assembly  of 
divines  at  Westminster,  A.  D.  1 643-1 648,  in  that 
confession  which  was  adopted  as  the  creed  of  the 
Reformed  Church  in  Scotland,  and  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  America,  determined: 

^'  As  it  is  of  the  law  of  nature  that  in  general 
a  due  proportion  of  time  be  set  apart  for  the  wor- 
ship of  God,  so  in  his  Word,  by  a  positive,  moral, 
and  perpetual  commandment,  binding  all  men  in 
all  ages,  he  hath  particularly  appointed  one  day 
in  seven  for  a  Sabbath  to  be  kept  holy  unto  him, 
which  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the  res- 
urrection of  Christ  was  the  last  day  of  the  week, 
and  from  the  resurrection  of  Christ  was  changed 
into  the  first  day  of  the  week,  which  in  Scripture 
is  called  the  Lord's  day,  and  is  to  be  continued  to 
the  end  of  the  world  as  the  Christian  Sabbath."* 

This  ' '  Confession ' '  also  gives  extended  and 
precise  directions  as  to  the  manner  of  observance, 
and  the  ^ '  Shorter  Catechism ' '  with  great  fulness 
*  "  Confession,"  XXL  7. 


26o  THE  ABIDING  SABBATH. 

enforces  the  same  teachings.  Perhaps  no  other 
utterance  of  the  church  has  had  so  great  an  influ- 
ence in  securing  the  real  sanctification  of  the  Sab- 
bath. With  this  agree  almost  the  entire  bulk  of 
evangelical  confessions  and  the  great  majority  of 
Protestant  divines.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  the 
argument  from  theological  opinion  could  be  made 
more  strong  than  it  is. 

It  may  be  fearlessly  asserted  that  the  real 
teachings  of  the  Reformation  on  this  question  are 
not  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  its  leaders  or  in 
its  earliest  confessions.  They  are  to  be  sought  in 
its  fair  fruitage,  the  great  Puritan  epoch,  whose 
later  testimony  we  have  just  cited,  and  especially 
in  the  evangelical  revival  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, and  the  nineteenth  century  church -life 
which  is  its  result.  The  principles  of  the  Refor- 
mation in  their  final  outcome,  by  leading  to  the 
study  of  God's  Word,  have  given  the  world  a  re- 
vived Lord's  day,  a  true  Sabbath,  which  is  one 
of  the  most  striking  features  of  the  religious  life 
of  to-day. 


THE   SABBATH   OF   TO-DAY.  261 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   SABBATH   OF  TO-DAY. 

"Where  now  the  beauty  of  the  Sabbath  kept 
With  conscientious  reverence,  as  a  day 
By  the  Almighty  Lawgiver  pronounced 
Holy  and  blest  ?"  wordsworth. 

The  history  of  the  I^ord's  day  through  the 
past  Christian  centuries  has  necessarily  been 
brief.  The  limits  of  this  discussion  do  not  per- 
mit any  detailed  account  of  the  great  Puritan  and 
Evangelical  movements  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that 
these  have  given  a  deeper,  and  in  some  cases  per- 
haps a  superstitious,  reverence  to  the  institution. 
There  are,  however,  in  the  status  of  the  Sabbath 
to-day  some  important  questions  involved  which 
touch  its  perpetuity  of  obligation. 

The  present  age  has  been  prolific  in  attacks 
upon  the  sanctity  of  the  Lord's  day.  The  more 
dangerous  of  these  are  those  which  are  inflicted 
in  the  house  of  its  pretended  friends.  The  prin- 
ciple of  the  Reformation,  the  "right  of  private 
judgment,"  has  been  treated  as  if  it  furnished  ari./^ 
absolute  and  complete  rule  of  human  thinking*-  ' 


262  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

This  illegitimate  development  of  tlie  great  idea 
of  the  reformers  has  led  to  the  denial  of  all  exter- 
nal authority  in  religion.  Such  freedom  from 
authority  cannot  exist.  It  would  be  as  absurd  to 
build  up  a  system  of  physical  science  without 
observation  of  nature  and  its  phenomena,  as  to 
build  up  a  science  of  human  duty  without  that 
record  of  supernatural  phenomena  and  that  reve- 
lation of  eternal  moral  truths  which  are  o^iven  in 
the  Word  of  God.  True,  no  man  or  church  has 
the  right  to  interpret  for  me  the  facts  either  of 
nature  or  of  grace,  but  by  th^facU  in  both  spheres 
my  thinking  is,  nevertheless,  to  be  formed.  The 
Bible  is  still  '^the  rule,  and  the  only  sufficient 
rule,  of  our  faith  and  practice." 

The  tendency  of  extreme  Protestantism  is  too 
often  to  negative  the  value  of  every  outward  in- 
stitution of  the  church.  This  spirit  of  denial  has 
taken  all  inward  significance  from  the  sacraments, 
and  reduced  the  Lord's  day  to  a  mere  valuable 
instrument  of  religious  discipline,  rather  than 
what  it  is,  the  teacher  of  lessons  of  its  own. 
Let  the  advocates  of  this  view  remember  that 
they  cannot  and  will  not  retain  the  Sabbath  as  a 
day  of  rest  and  worship  for  a  single  generation 
after  the  conception  of  its  moral  obligation  has 
departed.  Expediency  is  but  a  rule  of  occasional 
action ;  it  cannot  be  made  the  basis  of  a  perma- 


THE    SABBATH    OF   TO-DAY.  263 

nent  and  universal  institution.  If  there  has  been 
any  relaxation  of  the  public  conscience  on  this 
question,  it  has  most  largely  come  from  the  fact 
that  the  Sabbath  does  not  in  the  common  mind  of 
to-day  rest  down  on  its  divine  authority.  If  that 
conviction  should  be  wholly  lost,  the  full  end  of 
the  Sabbath  would  be  near. 

Alike  dangerous  is  the  substitution  of  the  dic- 
tum of  the  church  for  the  warrant  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture. This  opposite  tendency  is  less  in  the  peril 
it  threatens  to  the  sacred  day  only  from  the  fact 
that  it  is  less  consonant  to  the  spirit  of  the  times 
than  the  extreme  un-churchly  position.  To 
make  the  Lord's  day  only  an  ecclesiastical  con- 
trivance is  to  give  no  assurance  to  the  moral 
reason  and  to  lay  no  obligation  upon  a  free  con- 
science. The  church  cannot  maintain  this  insti- 
tution by  its  own  edict.  Council,  assembly,  con- 
vocation, and  synod  can  impose  a  law  on  the 
conscience  only  when  they  are  able  to  back  their 
decree  with  "Thus  saith  the  Lord." 

It  is  obvious,  moreover,  that  churches  can 
only  reach  communicants  with  their  decrees. 
That  a  day  of  rest  may  exist,  it  must  be  univer- 
sal. It  can  be  so  only  by  being  clothed  with  the 
majesty  and  power  of  divine  legislation. 

Another  factor  in  the  conflict  of  to-day  is  the 
so-called  advanced  criticism.     It  is  still  too  early 


264  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

to  announce  the  outcome  of  current  hypotheses  in 
regard  to  the  development  of  the  Hebrew  religion 
and  religious  writings.  Whether  they  shall  end, 
as  did  much  the  same  treatment  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament a  generation  ago,  in  bringing  us  nearer  to 
the  living  facts  of  the  record,  and  in  the  discovery 
of  deeper  grounds  of  verity  for  Holy  Scripture,  or 
whether  they  shall  compel  reconstruction  of  our 
method  of  regarding  the  ancient  books  of  the  Bi- 
ble, is  still  a  matter  for  future  demonstration.  It 
is  never  too  early,  however,  to  suggest  that  we 
have  the  warrant  of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles 
for  a  free  use  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  doctrine.  This  testimony  covers  the 
moral  precepts  of  the  law  and  the  spiritual  reve- 
lations of  the  prophets;  that  is,  it  covers  the  whole 
ground  necessary  to  establish  from  Scripture  the 
divine  authority  of  the  Sabbatic  law.*  Even 
many  of  the  advocates  of  the  higher  criticism 
contend  that  their  views  are  not  inconsistent 
w^ith  a  high  theory  of  inspiration  and  strict  meth- 

*  It  is  proper  to  suggest  that  the  speculations  of  this  school 
usually  ascribe  to  the  priestly  codex  containing  the  Elohist 
account  of  creation  and  the  first  Sabbath  a  greater  age  than 
to  the  Decalogue.  This  would  do  away  with  the  denial  of  a 
pre-Mosaic  Sabbath,  and  would  establish  the  tradition  of  crea- 
tion as  its  foundation.  This  is  perfecdy  fair  as  an  ad  homhiem 
argument  against  any  attack  on  the  Sabbath  made  on  the 
basis  of  modern  criticism. 


THE   SABBATH   OF  TO-DAY.  265 

ods  of  interpretation.  Yet,  without  doubt,  many 
of  the  opinions  promulgated  have  a  tendency  to 
weaken,  in  the  common  mind,  the  conception  of 
the  authority  of  Scripture,  and  consequently  to 
destroy  the  sacredness  of  the  Sabbath  day.  Over 
against  this  movement  it  is  gratifying  to  place 
the  larger  interest  in  the  study  of  God's  Word, 
and  the  growth  of  elaborate  organizations  and  the 
multiplication  of  appliances  to  that  end.  What 
Christian  heart  can  doubt  that,  out  of  all  this  fer- 
ment and  activity  of  thought,  that  Word  of  God 
which  is  "tried"  will  come  forth  more  glorious 
in  its  brightness  and  more  transcendent  in  its 
authority. 

The  fact  remains,  nevertheless,  that  these 
driftings  of  human  thought  have  largely  weak- 
ened the  sense  of  moral  duty  in  the  observance  of 
the  Lord's  day.  It  is  not  worth  while,  perhaps, 
to  speak  of  the  growth  of  pseudo-scientific  skep- 
ticism in  all  its  forms,  which  strikes  not  alone  at 
the  Sabbath,  but  at  any  eternal  ground  whatever 
for  any  moral  law.  From  its  very  nature  as  a  de- 
nial of  universal  human  instincts,  it  cannot  have 
any  long  reign;  yet  it  has  lived  long  enough  to 
aid  in  weakening  the  hold  of  the  moral  law  on 
the  conscience  of  the  age,  and  extracting  the 
sacredness  of  meaning  from  the  admitted  bene- 
ficial institution  of  a  day  of  rest. 


266  THK   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

Other  forces  than  these  are  at  work.  There 
is,  in  this  as  in  every  age,  the  undertone  of  the 
sinful  heart  against  the  law  of  God.  This  does 
not  hesitate  to  declare  its  open  hostility  to  the 
Lord's  day.  Let  not  the  issue  be  mistaken.  The 
attack  on  the  Sabbath  is  part  of  the  larger  con- 
flict waged  against  God,  the  Bible,  and  the 
church.  This  is  the  outcome  of  the  insidious 
assaults  of  the  public  press,  the  blasphemous  dec- 
larations of  socialists  and  infidels,  and  the  plausi- 
ble theories  of  pretended  philanthropis<"S.  While 
it  is  not  for  one  moment  to  be  admitted  that 
Christianity  is  weaker  to-day  than  in  the  former 
years — for  these  are  the  very  crowning  days  of 
Christian  history — yet  it  is  compelled  to  meet  the 
spirit  of  the  times,  disguised  in  more  subtle  forms, 
and  more  dangerously  allied  with  the  mundane 
culture  of  to-day,  the  revived  pagan  culture  of 
this  nineteenth  century. 

At  no  point  does  the  time-spirit  come  more 
closely  in  conflict  with  the  spirit  of  eternity  than 
in  the  Sabbath,  which  is  the  embodiment  of  an 
eternal  thought  in  a  temporal  ordinance.  It  is  a 
continual  protest  against  a  mere  worldly  culture, 
and  against  any  aim  of  life  that  ends  in  the  pres- 
ent. Never  were  the  allurements  of  the  spirit  of 
this  world  more  mighty  than  to-day.  Business, 
culture,  pleasure,  all  fill   the  daily  thoughts  of 


THE   SABBATH   O^   TO-DAY.  26y 

man  with  an  absorbing  interest  such  as  past  ages 
have  not  known. 

The  weekly  witness  of  eternity  has,  therefore, 
a  supreme  value  never  known  "before.  It  is  not 
the  least  of  those  instruments  by  which  God 
would  safely  guide  these  forceful  years  in  which 
we  live  into  a  surer  faith  and  a  larger  life. 

With  the  question  of  the  Lord's  day  are 
wrapped  up,  to-day,  other  issues  of  vast  import. 
The  social  problems  connected  with  labor,  in  its 
relations  to  large  accumulations  of  capital,  by 
which  capital  becomes  the  master  of  labor  rather 
than  its  instrument;  the  growing  evil  of  divorce, 
which  is  the  shame  of  Protestant  nations ;  the 
world-old  evil  of  intemperance,  w^hich  has  in 
these  days  become,  through  its  organization  into 
a  controlling  financial  and  political  power,  a 
standing  threat  to  free  institutions — all  these 
have  relationships  to  the  Sabbath  readily  seen 
by  the  opponents  of  religion  and  morality,  but 
not  sufiSciently  regarded  by  the  friends  of  divine 
law  and  social  order.  It  is,  perhaps,  the  strong- 
est existing  barrier  between  the  encroachments  of 
covetousness  and  the  laboring  man.  It  is  allied  as 
an  institution  with  marriage,  and  is  the  guardian 
and  fostering  teacher  of  domestic  virtue.  Be- 
tween the  holy  day  and  the  unholy  power  of  the 
liquor-traffic  there  is  a  deadly  antagonism.      We 


268  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

are  to  cherish  the  IvOrd's  day  as  one  chief  agent 
in  the  eternal  warfare  against  the  deadly  foes 
that  imperil  the  perpetuity  of  civilization.  De- 
fence of  a  holy  Sabbath  is  at  the  same  time  an  at- 
tack on  the  most  pernicious  evils  of  our  time.  It 
is,  in  the  loftiest  sense,  self-defence. 

If  the  Lord's  day  meets  more  subtle  and  deter- 
mined opposition  to-day  than  ever  before,  it  has, 
on  the  other  hand,  a  more  full  embodiment  in  the 
practical  life  of  man  than  it  has  ever  enjoyed  in 
past  ages.  It  is,  in  some  form,  as  universal  as 
Christian  civilization.  Other  and  alien  nations 
are  adopting  it.  As  a  day  of  religion  it  is,  per- 
haps, more  largely  used  for  preaching  and  teach- 
ing now  than  at  any  other  time  in  the  world's 
history.     How  shall  it  be  preserved  ? 

While  it  is  certain  that  the  Lord's  day  as  a  di- 
vine institution  is  under  the  care  of  Providence 
and  never  can  wholly  perish  from  the  earth,  to 
make  men  feel  and  practically  acknowledge  its 
obligation  the  highest  religious  sanctions  are  ne- 
cessary. *'To  the  law  and  the  testimony"  is  the 
rallying  cry  for  this  and  every  age  when  divine 
truth  is  in  peril  or  moral  duty  questioned.  Let 
us  light  the  candle  of  human  duty  again  and 
again  at  the  sun — from  that  Will  and  Word  of 
God  which  alone  can  adequately  teach  men  in 
morals  and  "make  us  wise  unto  salvation." 


THE   SABBATH   OF  TO-DAY.  269 

And  what  does  that  Word  reveal  to  us?  Here 
is  an  institution,  ordained  at  the  beginning  of 
history,  invested  with  meanings  which  take  hold 
on  the  past  and  point  forward  towards  the  future, 
which  has  been  declared  by  the  spoken  utterance 
of  the  eternal  God  and  placed  in  his  moral  law, 
W'hich  has  had  the  seal  of  the  victory  of  Christ 
placed  upon  it,  and  bears  in  it  the  promise  of  a 
new  creation.  Although  it  is  of  the  highest  value 
to  the  whole  nature  of  man,  it  constantly  antago- 
nizes his  selfish  blindness,  and  has  ever  been  in 
conflict  with  the  covetous  and  profane  spirit  of 
the  world.  In  spite  of  all  this  opposition,  the 
avarice  of  man,  the  love  of  novelty,  the  impa- 
tience of  restraint,  and  the  hatred  of  worship,  the 
Sabbath  has  lived  on  with  constantly  renewed 
vigor.  Its  permanence  is  no  mean  proof  of  the 
divinity  of  its  origin.  Such  is  the  Lord's  day, 
the  Sabbath  of  to-day.  That  institution  which 
has  met  and  survived  all  the  shocks  of  time  has 
the  spring  of  its  life  in  the  eternal  world,  and 
shall  last  until  it  gives  place  to  the  full  reality  it 
incloses,  and  the  abiding  Sabbath  of  time  blends 
with  the  Sabbath  of  eternity. 


270  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

SABBATH   OF   ETERNITY. 
"That  greatest  Sabbath  has  no  evening."         augustine. 

"  The  Sundays  of  man's  life, 

Threaded  together  on  one  string, 

Make  bracelets  to  adorn  the  wife 
Of  the  eternal,  glorious  King, 

On  Sunday  heaven's  gates  stand  ope ; 
Blessings  are  plentiful  and  rife — 

More  plentiful  than  hope." 

GEORGE  HERBERT. 

An  eternal  Sabbath  is  the  end  and  aim  of  all 
the  works  of  God.  As  the  memorial  of  its  Edenic 
bliss  when  it  touched  the  world  in  Paradise,  as 
its  representative  in  time,  and  as  the  prophet  of 
its  true  consummation  in  heaven,  the  abiding 
Sabbath  has  been  given  to  man. 

One  blessing  there  is,  promised  again  and 
again,  which  has  brooded  over  our  earth  from  the 
beginning,  and  which  has  nowhere  been  perfectly 
realized.  This  is  the  blessing  of  rest.  And  the 
failure  to  realize  its  fulness  has  not  been  through 
any  infidelity  of  God  to  his  promise,  but  because 
of  the  disobedience  and  unbelief  of  those  to 
whom  it  came.  God  rested  at  the  beginning 
from  all  his  works,  and  this  rest  seems  to  have 


SABBATH   OF   ETERNITY.  27I 

been  in  part  shared  by  man  in  Eden.  But  from 
this  Sabbatic  state  of  perfect  harmony  of  spirit 
and  nature  man  was  expelled  because  of  disobe- 
dience. The  Sabbath  meantime  remained  as  the 
type  of  true  rest.  Again,  rest  was  offered  to  Is- 
rael, but  they  did  not  attain  to  it,  for  because  of 
their  unbelief  they  perished  in  the  wilderness. 
Still  the  Sabbath  remained  as  the  promise  of  a 
rest  still  to  be  achieved.  In  the  time  of  David 
the  promise  is  repeated,  ^'To-day,  if  ye  will  hear 
his  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts,  as  in  the  provo- 
cation, and  as  in  the  day  of  temptation  in  the  wil- 
derness. ' '  Psa.  95 : 7,  8.  That  rest  which  Joshua 
did  not  give  to  Israel  has  been  secured  by  our 
Joshua  for  the  people  of  God;  for  he  has  also 
completed  his  work  of  redemption  and  rests  from 
his  task  as,  in  the  beginning,  from  the  work  of 
creation.  Into  that  heavenly  rest  "within  the 
veil,"  our  Forerunner,  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  has 
passed.  True  rest  is  henceforth  secure,  through 
him  who  has  promised  to  those  coming  to  him, 
"Ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls."  Matt. 
11:29.  This  is  the  rest  from  the  guilt  and  ser- 
vice of  sin,  the  rest  of  faith.  ' '  We  which  have 
believed  do  enter  into  rest."     Heb.  4:3. 

This  soul-rest  however,  is  not  the  whole  of 
"my  rest"  which  God  says  the  believer  shall 
share.     Sin   is   not   yet  wholly  destroyed  in   us. 

Abiding  Sabbath.  I  8 


272  THE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

The  resurrection  of  Christ  has  in  it  a  promise 
for  the  bodies  as  well  as  for  the  souls  of  men. 
The  physical  nature  of  man  is  not  yet  free  from 
the  bondage  of  corruption.  Labor,  pain,  weari- 
ness, and  disease  still  weigh  it  down.  Beyond 
the  enjoyment  of  spiritual  rest  here,  there  awaits 
the  believing  soul  a  higher  blessedness  hereaf- 
ter. It  is  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit,  "Blessed 
are  the  dead  that  die  in  the  Lord  from  hence- 
forth, .  .  .  that  they  may  rest  from  their  labors. ' ' 
For  the  reason,  therefore,  that  its  fulfilment  has 
not  fully  come,  the  Sabbath  must  abide  as  an  ex- 
ternal institution  of  the  church,  the  standing  type 
of  the  final  victory  of  the  believer  and  his  eternal 
blessedness.  "There  remaineth  therefore  a  Sab- 
bath-keeping for  the  people  of  God. ' '  Heb.  4:9.* 
But  this  Sabbath  which  abides  is  not  the  Jew- 
ish Sabbath.  Its  ceremonial  rites  and  sacrificial 
types  have  been  consummated  in  Christ.  The 
rest  for  the  whole  nature  of  man,  spirit  and  body, 
which  is  foreshadowed  by  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  is  not  yet  consummated.  Consequently 
we  keep  the  day  of  finished  redemption,  the  day 
of  his  resurrection,  the  Lord's  day,  as  the  only 

*  Should  this  chapter  be  regarded  as  too  mystical  by  any, 
let  it  be  remembered  that  it  is  not  offered  as  argument,  but 
rather  as  a  fitting  complement  to  the  trend  of  argument  in 
the  whole  work.  None  the  less  does  the  author  believe  the 
exposition  sound. 


SABBATH   OF   ETERNITY.  273 

abiding  type  of  that  unattained  glory  of  the  sons 
of  God.  *'Let  us  labor  therefore  to  enter  into 
that  rest,"  in  type  here  and  in  substance  here- 
after, lest  we  too  should  fail  through  unbelief  as 
did  Adam  in  Eden  and  the  Israelites  in  the  wil- 
derness. 

All  earthly  Sabbatisms  have  their  origin,  their 
reason,  and  their  fulfilment  in  that  heavenly  Sab- 
batism  that  began  when  God  rejoiced  over  his 
finished  work,  which  has  touched  the  earth  with 
weekly  bound  all  along  the  centuries,  and  still 
abides  for  the  people  of  God. 

The  Sabbath,  being  a  memorial  of  the  lost 
Eden,  is  also  a  prophecy  that  paradise  shall  be 
regained.  In  the  last  chapters  of  the  Bible  we 
see  pictured  some  of  the  glories  of  the  Eden  to 
come.  Again  appears  the  tree  of  life,  and  again 
the  river  that  makes  glad  the  garden  and  city 
of  God.  Time  began  with  the  first  creation  of 
the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  shall  end  with  the 
creation  of  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth.  Be- 
tween this  eternity  past  and  eternity  to  come 
stands  the  Sabbath  testifying  in  time  to  that  eter- 
nal world  of  spirit  for  which  all  things  exist. 
And  that  recovered  Eden  has  meanings  for  the 
whole  creation.  Man's  sin  has  cursed  the  earth, 
and  in  his  redemption  the  earth  shall  share.  For 
this,    its    glorification,    nature    waits   with    out- 


274  '^HE   ABIDING   SABBATH. 

stretched  hand  of  earnest  expectation,  for  even 
the  physical  universe  shall  be  crowned  and  glori- 
fied in  the  coming  manifestation  of  the  sons  of 
God.  Death,  pain,  and  sorrow  shall  vanish  in 
that  new  spiritualized  heaven  and  earth.  Then 
God  shall  be  at  peace  with  man,  man's  body  with 
his  spirit,  and  humanity  w4th  nature.  All  crea- 
tion shall  put  on  the  robes  of  festal  gladness.  To 
herald  this  last  splendid  triumph  of  the  Redeemer 
in  the  restoration  of  the  Sabbath  state,  lost  by 
the  fall,  there  still  remains  the  day  of  resurrec- 
tion, the  Lord's  day,  an  abiding  Sabbath  for  the 
people  of  God. 

If  the  Sabbath  had  fulfilled  all  its  meanings 
in  Christ,  then  it  w^ould  have  ceased  with  him, 
as  did  the  rites  of  the  Mosaic  law\  But  because 
it  has  in  it  spiritual  ideas  not  yet  fulfilled,  and 
whose  fulfilment  shall  be  the  end  of  time,  there- 
fore the  Lord's  day  as  an  institution  shall  stand 
until  the  last  hour  w^hen  time  shall  blend  with 
eternity.  Being  a  permanent  institution,  its  obli- 
gation is  enduring,  and  comes  to  all  men  wdth 
the  still  spoken  words  of  the  Eternal,  "Remem- 
ber the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy. ' ' 

It  was  noticed  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book 
that  marriage  comes  to  us  hand  in  hand  with  the 
Sabbath  from  the  birthday  of  the  world,  given  to 
man  at  the  beginning  amid  the  shoutings  of  the 


SABBATH   OF   ETERNITY.  275 

strong  sons  of  God  and  the  jubilant  chant  of  the 
morning  stars ;  they  both  come  to  us  from  the 
bowers  of  Bden ;  they  have  journeyed  with  us 
through  all  the  thorny  paths  of  the  centuries, 
constantly  opening  new  gateways  through  which 
souls  have  escaped  from  the  prison-house  of  earth- 
ly sorrows  and  cares  into  the  boundless  freedom  of 
the  Spirit's  love  and  light;  they  point  not  indis- 
tinctly to  the  future;  they  lead  us  by  the  hand  of 
our  hopes  towards  their  higher  revelations  be- 
yond the  bounds  of  time,  when  marriage  shall  be 
crowned  and  ennobled  in  the  perpetual  bridal  of 
the  lyamb  and  the  church,  when  the  Sabbath 
shall  receive  its  full  interpretation  and  be  glori- 
fied for  ever  in  the  eternal  Sabbath,  abiding  still 
when  the  ' '  former  things  have  passed  away. ' ' 


APPENDIX 


The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  translation 
by  Mr.  Fox  Talbot  of  the  fifth  tablet  in  the  As- 
syrian account  of  the  creation. 

**  He  made  the  year.  Into  four  quarters  he  divi- 
ded it. 

Twelve  months  he  established,  with  their  con- 
stellations, three  by  three. 

And  for  the  days  of  the  year  he  appointed  festi- 
vals. 

In  the  centre  he  placed  luminaries. 

The  moon  he  appointed  to  rule  the  night, 

And  to  wander  through  the  night  until  the 
dawn  of  day. 

Every  month  without  fail  he  made  holy  assem- 
bly days. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  month,  at  the  rising  of 
the  night. 

It  shot  forth  its  horns  to  illuminate  the  heavens. 

On  the  seventh  day  he  appointed  a  holy  day. 

And  to  cease  from  all  work  he  commanded.'* 


278  APPENDIX. 

B. 

The  following  is  a  translation,  by  Rev,  A.  H. 
Sayce,  of  the  rubric  for  the  seventh  day  in  the 
Assyrian  calendar  discovered  by  Smith. 

*'The  seventh  day.      A  feast  of  Merodach  and 

Zir-Panitu — a  festival. 
A  Sabbath.     The  prince  of  many  nations 
The  flesh  of  birds  and  cooked  fruits  eats  not. 
The  garments  of  his  body  he  changes  not. 

White  robes  he  puts  not  on. 
Sacrifices  he  offers  not.    The  king  in  his  chariot 

rides  not. 
In  royal  fashion  he  legislates  not.     A  place  of 

garrison  he  appoints  not. 
General  (by  word  of)  mouth  appoints  not. 
Medicine  for  sickness  of  body  he  applies  not. 
To  make  a  sacred  spot  it  is  suitable. 
In  the  night  in  the  presence  of  Merodach  and 

Istar 
The  king  his  offering  makes.      Sacrifices  he 

offers. 
Raising  his  hand  the  high  place  of  the  god  he 

worships. ' ' 


APPENDIX.  279 

c. 

Among  the  reasons  for  doubting  the  early  ex- 
istence of  the  work  known  as  the  * 'Apostolical 
Constitutions ' '  are  the  following  : 

1.  The  very  fact  that  it  commands  the  observ- 
ance of  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  against  the  teaching 
of  the  New  Testament  and  the  universal  expres- 
sion of  opinion  of  the  ante-Nicene  Fathers.  It 
is  to  be  remarked  that  another  fabrication  of  the 
same  kind,  the  PseiLdo-Igiiatius^  likewise  favors  the 
keeping  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath. 

2.  The  fact,  commented  upon  by  Daille,  that 
almost  every  day  in  the  year  is  made  by  this  doc- 
ument either  a  feast  or  a  fast.  This  is  thoroughly 
opposed  to  all  our  knowledge  of  the  ante-Nicene 
Church. 

3.  In  its  preceptive  manner  it  is  opposed  to 
the  whole  tone  of  the  earliest  Christian  literature. 
It  everywhere  denotes  a  ritualistic  church-life  very 
different  from  the  simplicity  of  faith  and  practice 
which  characterized  the  primitive  church. 

4.  The  recently  discovered  ''Teaching  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles,"  if  genuine,  would  fully  con- 
firm the  critical  doubt  which  has  existed  as  to  the 
applicability  of  the  external  evidence  supposed  to 
sustain  the  antiquity  of  the  ' '  Constitutions. ' '  The 
*' Teaching"  would  seem  to  be  the  earlier,  sim- 

19 


28o  APPENDIX. 

pier,  and  more  Scriptural  work  upon  which  the 
"Constitutions"  have  been  conjectured  to  be 
based.  The  references  in  Irenseus  (Pfafif's  "2d 
Fragment"),  Busebius  ("Bvang.  Hist,"  HI.  25), 
and  Athanasius  ("39th  Festal  Letter"),  may  all 
be  applied  to  the  "Teaching."  There  would 
thus  be  left  only  the  testimony  of  Bpiphanius, 
A.  D.  370,  which  probably  does  not  refer  to  the 
"Constitutions,"  at  least  in  their  present  shape. 
There  is  no  other  reference  to  them  in  the  wri- 
tings of  the  fourth  century,  and  only  one  in  the 
fifth  (in  what  is  known  as  the  * '  Incomplete  Work 
on  Matthew").  There  is  therefore  no  certain 
ante-Nicene  reference  to  the  "Constitutions," 
and  only  two  (possibly  but  one)  before  the  end  of 
the  fifth  century.  This,  taken  in  connection  with 
the  internal  evidence,  seems  to  justify  the  conclu- 
sion that  they  cannot  be  assigned  a  much  earlier 
date  than  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century. 

5.  The  spurious  character  of  the  ' '  Constitu- 
tions" is  shown  by  the  fact  that  at  least  three 
documents,  of  diiferent  ages,  are  discernible  in 
them,  one  of  which  (the  seventh  book)  appears 
to  be  in  great  measure  a  redaction  and  enlarge- 
ment of  the  * '  Teaching. '  * 


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